Steven Bonk

Mr. Speaker, this is something that I have a great privilege to speak about. It is deeply close to me and deeply personal to me. I grew up on a farm. I live on a farm. I have had the pleasure of working for 30 years on five different continents, promoting soil health and consulting on soil health and animal genetics. They say that all life on earth comes down to the top six inches of soil we [more]

Mr. Speaker, whenever my colleague gives a speech in this House, it is very dense and full of facts. With his legal background, I would like to ask him about something that is very important. He mentioned two things: one was implementation and one was definitions. We cannot get into the implementation until we have strict definitions. He said that the defining features of this legislation would [more]

Madam Speaker, I assume the Liberals are aiming to have some definite outcomes from this bill, but we are lacking definitions. For example, one of the main items they are discussing is online bullying, yet we still do not have an official definition of bullying. We do not even have a definition of the social media they are targeting. Could my hon. colleague mention how on earth we can measure [more]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals brought forward this bill, and there are a lot of things resting on it, but the most important is definitions. I mentioned this to my colleague who gave a speech previously: How can we measure outcomes and how can we measure progress if we do not even have strict definitions with respect to what the bill is intended to do? Can the member enlighten us about exactly what [more]

Mr. Speaker, one thing we know is that most innovation in agriculture is driven by farmers. No one knows their land and their animals better than they do. The member said in her speech that this can be achieved only through government action, yet we have seen that some of the most incredible innovation, of any field at all in Canada, is in agriculture. Why does she now think it has to be done by [more]

Prime Minister Madam Speaker, there was so much in that speech that I agreed with and quite a bit in that speech that I did not agree with. I think the main thing I do not agree with is that thehas the heart of a Conservative. A Conservative would never run up such ridiculous amounts of debt. There has been more debt added to our national debt load during the terms of former prime minister [more]

Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River Mr. Speaker, during one of the answers to a question from a colleague of mine, the member forsaid their government was working, and I do not want him to inadvertently mislead the House. I was wondering if he would withdraw that comment.

I'd like to start with the McWilliams. I'd like to thank both of you. For those who don't know, they spearheaded a campaign in 2002, called Hay West. They sent hay to drought-stricken farmers in western Canada. You have to keep in mind that this was right after BSE. I want to let you know that you will never, ever have to buy a beer if you come to western Canada. I'd like to ask you a simple [more]

I'm just going to ask a question about Mercosur. We've had a lot of witnesses here. All the major associations representing producers in Canada have come out very strongly against further access for Mercosur countries into our beef market in Canada. They're citing concerns of lower slaughter standards in South American countries, as well as concerns about labour standards and disease. We've had [more]