The federal Conservatives say the Liberal government’s lack of action on re-opening Canola shipments to China over the past year shows they don’t see Canada’s canola farmers and producers as a priority.
Lianne Rood, the Deputy Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, says Canadian canola and soybean producers are losing out on so much revenue.
"A billion dollars is the estimate for canola, $590 million dollars is the estimate for soybeans, because we've just seen weak leadership from Prime Minister Trudeau on this file. Where he's failed to stand up for our canola farmers and producers, and it's really unfortunate that took him over 120 days even lodged a complaint at the WTO.”
She says after China banned Canadian Canola Imports they (the Conservatives) called on the Liberals to launch a complaint with the WTO, pull Canadian funding from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and to increase inspections on all Chinese imports.
Rood notes another concern is the rail blockades here at home and the damage it caused our agriculture sector.
“It’s not just agriculture. Manufacturing and also potash is affected; $63 million a week, just for our grain sector alone is what this has caused us here domestically.”
She says another issue of concern that came up last week is the Pest Management Regulatory Agency and Health Canada’s decision to phase out Strychnine, an effective product that farmers have been using safely for decades to control the gopher population.
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