SoVote

Jun/16/22 3:03:59 p.m.
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Are we okay to go again? Order. The hon. member for Edmonton Mill Woods.

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Ms. Anita Vandenbeld (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development, Lib.)

Jun/16/22 7:51:30 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I want to thank my hon. colleague for Edmonton Strathcona for her dedicated commitment to this issue. I think we share a lot of the same commitment and passion for what really is an absolute crisis in the world. One thing I would ask my colleague is about the $250 million a year figure she cited. I know the minister earlier pointed to $514 million just for this current crisis, plus the $100 million we are giving to the African Development Bank, but even last year there was $306 million given only to the World Food Programme. That does not include everything else we are doing in food assistance. Could she perhaps clarify the statistic there?

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Context: House Hansard - 90 - Jun/16/22

Mr. Mark Gerretsen (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons (Senate), Lib.)

Jun/16/22 9:33:17 p.m.
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Madam Chair, it is an honour today to rise in the House to speak to this very important issue. I will say from the outset that I have certainly learned a lot from sitting here and listening to the debate over the last few hours about the realities of the situation and, indeed, I have learned a lot of information by listening to my colleagues in the NDP, the Conservatives and the Bloc and what they have had to contribute. First of all, the thing that I find most alarming is the fact that almost one out of every 10 people in the world is currently facing a problem with respect to accessing enough food. That is extremely problematic, and I genuinely believe that Canada has a role to play in that. With respect to the line of questioning that the member for Edmonton Strathcona has been raising over the last few hours, I believe that role is most definitely going to have to increase, in particular as we move forward into the future. We do know that, by 2050, we will need to be producing globally about 70% more food than we currently are. Therefore, when we consider some of that information, notwithstanding the war that is going on in Ukraine, because that is a whole separate issue, there is certainly a role for Canada to play in ensuring that there is access to food throughout the globe. It is not just from a humanitarian perspective, and I asked this in one of my questions earlier. The humanitarian perspective is extremely noble. It is extremely important for a country like Canada to play that role, and I believe that Canada feels an obligation from the humanitarian perspective, but more importantly, it comes back to what the Minister of International Development said in his opening speech on this earlier this evening, when he said that “international assistance is conflict prevention”. If we can make sure that we are playing a very active role in ensuring that people have access to food, we are going to help reduce the conflicts that are happening, which inevitably quite often spill into international conflicts. Another member said, earlier this evening, that wars quite often start as a result of a lack of food, in one way or another, directly or indirectly. When we consider that and consider the real implications of that, it makes absolute sense. A basic human need for survival is the access to food, and when we get to a point where that is not the case, we are going to have conflict. I will just talk, very quickly, about what is going on in Ukraine. When we consider the size of Ukraine, which is the fifth-largest supplier of wheat, we can very quickly see how in a global market this is going to affect different countries and different stakeholders very quickly. Specifically, Ukraine produces 50% of the wheat in Lebanon, 43% in Libya, 22% in Yemen and 21% in Bangladesh. Let us just imagine for a second what happens to the supply chains and the various individuals at the various parts of the production of food when they suddenly cannot access that food. It really makes me think of the insecurity that will exist throughout the world and the conflicts that might end up starting as a result of that. I am looking forward to listening to the rest of what members have to contribute tonight. Certainly, from my perspective, one of the things that are front and centre and that I worry about the most is what that conflict will be like if Canada does not step in and increase our contributions quite a bit more over the years, as we see the demand for food growing throughout the globe.

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