Agriculture appeared to have its day on Parliament Hill.
First, Damien Kurek made it official Thursday in the House of Commons as the Conservative MP for the Alberta riding of Battle River-Crowfoot announced his resignation from the seat to make way for Party Leader Pierre Poilievre to run in a by-election there and potentially put him back in Parliament. Kurek had been the MP for Battle River-Crowfoot since 2019.
Poilievre lost his Ontario riding of Carleton in last month's federal election. Kurek received 80% support to secure another term, but he made the decision to resign, saying it's important to put the country first.
There were plenty of kind words in the commons yesterday from members of all parties for the departing MP. Kurek said he's looking forward to becoming a farmer again.
"I look forward to being able to spend a little bit more time in a tractor cab, and one thing about being in a tractor cab, Mr. Speaker, is it doesn't heckle you," Kurek said followed by laughter from MP's. "But like government, it requires maintenance, it requires fuel, it requires direction and if you don't take care of it, Mr. Speaker, it breaks down and you have to call the mechanic, and you know who I think the best mechanic to fix our country is? Well my friends, his name is Pierre Poilievre."
A by-election in the riding will happen sometime this summer.
Todd Lewis officially a Senator
In the Senate, Todd Lewis was being sworn in Thursday.
The long-time farmer from Grey, Saskatchewan, and former President of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, and Vice-President of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, was surrounded by friends and family as he took the oath in the upper chamber.
After taking his seat, he received accolades from other members of the senate including government representative, Marc Gold.
"You've been a long-time advocate for change and for progress in the agricultural industry, having held numerous roles," Gold told Lewis. "I understand you're a fourth generation farmer with over 40 years of experience and as a deeply committed volunteer, your roots in your community run deep. Again, I have no doubt that you will bring that same passion for your community, for your province, and for your industry to this chamber."
Among those in the gallery supporting Lewis yesterday was former Federal Ag Minister Lawrence MacAulay.
Another shot at taking supply management off the negotiating table
The Bloc Quebecois is introducing a new bill in the House of Commons aimed at protecting supply management in future trade talks.
A previous bill introduced two years ago by the party, failed to make it through the senate last fall before the Christmas break and died on the table once parliament was dissolved before the election.
The text of the party's new Bill C-202 has not been spelled out in detail yet, but Bloc leader Yves-Francois Blanchet told reporters it's similar to Bill 282. He also believes the House of Commons can agree quickly to send it back to the senate and hopefully get it passed during the current three week session of parliament.
The Bloc is insisting on protecting supply managed industries like dairy in future trade talks, including the re-negotiation of Canada USMA expected sometime next year.
In previous talks, Canada's dairy industry was forced to give up market share to secure deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), but individual producers were compensated for the impact of lost market share with each deal.
A number of senators were strongly opposed to the previous bill which delayed a final vote in the upper chamber last fall.
CFIA state culling of Ostriches will go ahead, but calls to stop it are growing
Support for an ostrich farm in southern B.C. is growing, with hundreds more protestors expected to travel to the farm about an hour east of Kelowna this weekend.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) says the roughly 400 flightless birds will be culled, after an outbreak of avian flu on the farm last winter killed a number of birds and infected several others.
But the owners of Universal Ostrich farm near Edgewood say many of the birds that got sick last winter made a full recovery and so a cull isn't necessary. It's demanding the CFIA retest the birds, something the federal agency says won't happen.
In a statement this week, the agency said the cull will take place at an unspecified time.
The plight of the huge birds also has the attention of two high profile members of the Trump administration: Robert Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Health Secretary and Dr. Memet Oz.
In a letter to the CFIA, Kennedy Jr. says instead of killing them, the ostriches that recovered from avian flu should be studied, because it could lead to a breakthrough in how to treat the illness in other poultry like chickens and turkeys and even humans.
The young B.C. girl who contracted bird flu last summer in southern B.C. and survived also visited the farm east of Kelowna this week, demanding the lives of the birds be spared.
Federal Agriculture Minister, Heath MacDonald spoke with reporters about the situation while on his way into a caucus meeting on Thursday.
"We're in a process with CFIA and its due process and we're taking all the facts into consideration, and we'll move forward on the best possible solution for everybody involved," MacDonald told reporters. "I certainly feel sorry for the farmers and that, but we also have an economic side to this. We have to protect other industries and sectors as well."
When directly asked if all the birds will be destroyed, MacDonald replied, "the process is in place, not necessarily."
Despite that comment from the federal minister that the birds might not necessarily be destroyed, the CFIA contends the cull has to happen to protect other farms from being contaminated with bird flu.
(With files from Dean Thorpe, CFCW Edmonton)
