SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Dave Epp

  • Member of Parliament
  • Member of Parliament
  • Conservative
  • Chatham-Kent—Leamington
  • Ontario
  • Voting Attendance: 65%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $153,134.70

  • Government Page
  • Jun/4/24 11:02:48 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to pick up on the comments made by my colleague from Langley—Aldergrove. Supply chain costs are what is really impacting the price of food here. The government is maintaining a 34% tariff on Russian fertilizer. Do not get me wrong. I am in no way in favour of any measures that support Putin. However, the government is exempting Russian titanium for our aerospace industry. Why the hypocrisy?
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  • Mar/21/24 11:20:37 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the hon. member said that the cost was going to go up by less than a penny a gallon. He did not reference whether that was an American gallon, which is 3.785 litres, or whether it was a Canadian gallon, which is 4.54 litres. I will note that the increase translates to 3.3¢, which is less than either of those two numbers. In a few moments, he is going to step into his lobby, interrupt his stream of, using his own language, bull, and members can fill in the blank that he puts into Hansard, and eat a lunch. That lunch will have been produced by folks on farms like mine that have received fertilizer inputs. It has been trucked here to the distribution centre. Would he please enlighten the chamber as to how much of the carbon tax refund will be accounted for in his lunch?
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  • Nov/22/23 7:13:40 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I absolutely agree with the premise of the question put before me. Canada has so much more it could give toward energy security for Ukraine and our European allies, not only energy security, but also food security. I have raised this several times, both at committee and in this House. Eight billion people are in this world and four billion of them owe their lives to the conversion of fossil fuel, natural gas, to synthetic fertilizers. This has neither been challenged by anyone, nor has it been acknowledged other than by my Conservative colleagues. I would ask those who are opposing the conversion of natural gas to supply to our allies in the form of either energy or fertilizer for food this: Which 50% of the world's people do they not want to see live?
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  • Nov/9/23 4:15:13 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-34 
Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague and I both have a passion for addressing hunger. There are eight billion people in the world. Four million of them are dependent on synthetic nitrogen fertilizers made through the Haber-Bosch process from natural gas. If we had the pipeline that I referenced in my speech to eastern Canada, in the short term, we could have addressed the needs of our allies Germany and Japan, which have come calling for LNG. There will continue to be a need for infrastructure dealing particularly with natural gas. We could also do far better in addressing the world's expanding use of coal with LNG. That would do more than any carbon tax ever will, as the record of it is showing, in reducing world greenhouse gas emissions. It was predicted 10 years ago that we would reach peak coal. We set a record in coal consumption in the world last year. We are predicted to smash that record this year. Why are we not putting Canadian LNG on the world market? It is because we do not have the infrastructure to deliver it to our allies and to some of the countries still putting coal-fired plants online.
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  • Nov/7/23 12:51:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I agree with the hon. member that no one should go hungry. There are eight billion people in this world, four billion of whom are fed by synthetic fertilizers enhancing food production. That has been acknowledged in three committees I have attended this past week. Would the member acknowledge that natural gas from our fossil fuel companies is integral to feeding half of the world's production, as acknowledged by the World Food Programme, Canadian Foodgrains Bank and others?
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  • Nov/1/22 2:07:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, last night was Halloween, but for too many Canadian families, what is scary is a trip to the grocery store. When Canadians talk about bread-and-butter issues, they talk about bread being up 17% and butter being up 14% in the past year alone. Even apples for treat bags this year are up 17%, with record-smashing uptake at food banks across the country. Why? It is because farmers’ costs are going through the roof, yet while Canadians are already struggling to feed themselves, the NDP and Liberal coalition will triple the carbon tax while adding fertilizer mandates. A Conservative government will repeal these and get out of our farmers’ way so that we can grow our own affordable food. The government’s high energy taxes and proposed fertilizer restrictions will only drive food production abroad and undermine Canada’s food security. Did we not learn how irresponsible it is to rely on others from our COVID experience? Canadians cannot afford this costly coalition between the NDP and the Liberal government. Trick or treat?
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  • Jun/16/22 9:51:27 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to echo the comments of my Bloc colleague. I too enjoy working with the member for Beauce and I want to acknowledge that his mastery of the English language is surpassing my mastery of his mother tongue. This past week, a number of us met with representatives from the Atlantic Grains Council, Quebec grain growers and Ontario grain growers. They supplied us with a lot of information. Some of that information basically acknowledges that grain markets for corn, wheat and soybeans are up over 200%. Given the cost of inputs, which we have talked about today, particularly fertilizer, I am going to cite a few statistics. Anhydrous ammonia is up 504%. Those of us who use it know what it means. These quotes are since June 1, 2000. UAN 28% is up 439%. Diammonium phosphate, DAP for short, is up 304%. Urea is up 297%. These are costs of fertilizer inputs, on top of the carbon tax on our fuel being up and crop protection products being up. This inflation in the cost of food is driving farm input costs. Our futures markets for grain, which are predicting the future cost of food, are also up. Is this not one of the driving forces that many parts of the world are experiencing in their food insecurity as the cost of food rises?
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  • Mar/3/22 11:37:36 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, all four of my grandparents were born in Ukraine. I have visited three times and sunk my hands into that rich soil. Ukraine feeds much of Europe. I listened to the last two speeches, and a commenter from the previous speech stated that pipelines do not deliver fertilizer. A century ago, our nitrogen sources for crop production came with the warning “store high in transit”. Today's fertilizer is not produced that way. For the farmers in my hon. colleague's province, where does the nitrogen they use come from, and for the farmers in Ukraine who supply Europe, where does the nitrogen come from?
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