Questions for 2019 Federal Election Candidates
This set of questions has been provided to candidates at all-party forums during the election period. The New Democratic Party (NDP) provided written answers to the questions. Read the NDP responses here.
Agriculture and Farming into the Future
- I’m a farmer worried about extreme weather events. What will you do to help farmer manage the transition to a low-emissions future so we can help feed our neighbours in a changing climate?
- How will your party support efforts by new and young farmers to start and keep farming? One party’s platform includes increased financial assistance for first time home buyers. What help will you offer to new, first-time farm buyers in a market where new farmers are competing for land with pension funds and farmland investment corporations that are driving prices out of reach for our next generation of farmers?
- Whether it’s tax dollars or farmer check-off dollars, plant breeding research is still funded by farmers, and we should have a public and transparent say in how our public money is spent. The farmer-run western grains research foundation directs tens of millions of dollars in cereals breeding research every year. Will you pledge to support farmer interests, and oppose the corporate-driven agenda to put seed breeding research and seed variety ownership into the hands of unaccountable corporations?
- What policies will you bring in to support healthy food and sustainable farms serving their local communities?
- What help do you propose to farmers to help mitigate risk that doesn’t involve taking on new farm debt?
- What will you do to help farmers diversify away from risky foreign markets for their products in a volatile world faced with trade wars?
- Will you support universal Pharmacare to help reduce the financial burden health care can impose on self-employed farmers? Will you support universal childcare, to allow for more equal participation of all farmers in their agricultural work?
