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Core 1..196 Hansard (PRISM::Advent3b2 9.00) CANADA House of Commons Debates VOLUME 142 Ï NUMBER 042 Ï 2nd SESSION Ï 39th PARLIAMENT OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD) Friday, February 1, 2008 Speaker: The Honourable Peter Milliken CONTENTS (Table of Contents appears at back of this issue.) Also available on the Parliament of Canada Web Site at the following address: http://www.parl.gc.ca 2459 HOUSE OF COMMONS Friday, February 1, 2008 The House met at 10 a.m. increased consumption of fuel. In other words, the U.S. does not want to import any more oil as its consumption goes up. This increase is to be met by the production of corn and other commodities to make ethanol. Prayers What we are seeing is a dangerous precedent. Instead of encouraging a decrease in oil consumption on fossil fuels, the U.S. GOVERNMENT ORDERS government is encouraging an increase by growing corn. As we have Ï (1005) seen from the research, corn is not an efficient energy input-output [English] commodity. For every one unit of energy of corn, we may get 1.5 units of fuel, if that. CANADIAN ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ACT, 1999 The House resumed from January 31 consideration of the motion If we look at all of the input from fertilizer for fuel for machinery that Bill C-33, An Act to amend the Canadian Environmental and transportation, we need to question the efficiency of corn ethanol Protection Act, 1999, be read the second time and referred to a production. This is why I advocate and my party is saying that we committee. must discuss this bill in committee as part of an overall discussion in The Speaker: When the House last debated the bill now before our country on the whole aspect of biofuels. us, the hon. member for British Columbia Southern Interior had the floor and there are 17 minutes remaining in the time allotted for his Today the reality is that big agriculture, big oil and big biotech are remarks. in the biofuels driver's seat. It is Husky Oil that has opened the I therefore call on the hon. member for British Columbia Southern ethanol refineries in Manitoba, which is a good idea and it is helping Interior. farmers, but it is the big corporations that are in the driver's seat. Our challenge and the challenge of governments is to work with them Mr. Alex Atamanenko (British Columbia Southern Interior, and ensure the benefits of this industry go to the producers and NDP): Mr. Speaker, yesterday I was at the point where I was Canadians who always strive to meet their obligation to reduce discussing the biofuel example in Manitoba. Manitoba wants to get greenhouse gases. concrete results for farmers. The introduction of co-ops is also being considered, which is the way to go. If farmers can somehow get involved in the whole aspect of the industry, not just as suppliers, For example, of the 119 ethanol plants in the U.S., currently 49 are that is the way to go. still owned by farmers. However, of the 90 plants currently under construction in the U.S., about 90% are corporate owned. By having Both the federal and Manitoba governments have a subsidy for the biofuel industry firmly in control by the major multinationals, the blenders. Federally, it is 10¢ per litre for ethanol and 20¢ per litre for role of the farmer is reduced solely to that of supplier. If refineries biodiesel, guaranteed for three years. A $20 million biofuels then are allowed to import feedstock from underdeveloped countries opportunities for the producers initiative program runs from April or even from heavily subsidized U.S. farmers, our primary producers 1 of this year until the March 31, 2017. In Manitoba, subsidies to the will once again be left out in the cold and at the mercy of these blenders will start at 20¢ a litre but will decrease by 5¢ every two multinationals. years so that by 2016 there will be no subsidy to the industry. This seems a more reasonable approach. In other words, by this Ï (1010) time if this industry is not making a profit and there is a downturn in biofuels consumption, then government should not be injecting new [Translation] funds into this enterprise. It is important to look at the politics of the whole biofuel industry, There is also the question of genetically modified foods. When not only in North America but in the world. While we were in major corporations step up biological research, we will be faced with Washington, the agriculture committee was told that the U.S. the issue of GMOs. For example, there is the contamination of other government's ethanol corn initiative was there to fulfill its need for crops, the debate in Europe about Monsanto corn, and so on. 2460 COMMONS DEBATES February 1, 2008 Government Orders Biofuels have a role to play in a comprehensive renewable energy Nestlé's CEO bluntly characterized biofuels production as environ- strategy, but we have to continue to keep a close eye on them to mental lunacy. avoid problems like the ones that have occurred in the south. If taxpayers are to assume the burden of funding this industry, then we must make sure that our ability to ensure food safety is not That does not mean we need to stop the whole aspect of moving threatened or diminished. We also have to make sure our policies do forward in this industry. What this means is that we must undertake a not threaten another country's food safety, that we get real results very logical approach. We must see that as this industry moves when we reduce greenhouse gas emissions and that the industry is forward we help the primary producer. We have seen that this has not subsidized once it is established, as is the case in Manitoba. given the primary producer a stimulus to at least start making some money but at the same time we have a responsibility to feed not only Finally, we must continue to encourage a decrease in fuel ourselves but the world. consumption. In the long term, this is the most important factor in a fuel-based economy. [English] We must ensure that we do not get on the band wagon that we see happening south of the border where the American ethanol industry As we begin debating the idea of biofuels as a possible solution to is creating what I would say in many respects havoc in other parts of part of our energy needs, we must not forget food. the world where countries are scrambling to supply this growing demand for fuels. For the first time we are seeing the emergence of a truly global agricultural market driven by the underlying force of all economic activity. The scarcity of goods, wheat supplies for example, have reached a 30 year low. In only one year, inventories in the European As I said before, instead of the growing demand for fuels, we Union have dropped from 14 million tonnes to only 1 million tonnes. should be concentrating on decreasing our demand for fuels and fossil fuels in particular. We need to ask ourselves how humankind will be able to feed itself in the future and at what price. How can agriculture feed the world that grows by 80 million people each year? When we take Much of what the energy farmers produce is offset by the amount land out of food production to produce fuel, we obviously of energy that goes into producing the plants in the first place. They complicate this matter and we need to find a balance. consume fossil fuels to harvest plants, for shipping, for storage and for drying, not to mention the energy required to produce pesticides If we come back to our local agricultural industry, we have seen and fertilizers. The economic possibilities are also limited. that the demand for biofuels has driven up the price for corn, which is good if one is a corn producer but not so good if one is raising cattle and already competing with the high Canadian dollar, the rising cost of inputs and other factors that are driving the cost Even in the U.S., if the entire corn crop were converted into fuel, it production up. would satisfy only about 12% of the demand for gasoline. For example, to fill a 100 litre tank of an SUV, an ethanol producer has Only yesterday we heard once again from representatives of the to process about one-quarter tonne of wheat. This is enough wheat pork and cattle industry saying that their industry was in crisis. Some for a baker to bake about 460 kilograms of bread which has a total producers in Ontario are saying that they are losing at least $300 for nutritional value of about one million kilo-calories, enough to feed every steer sold. We are seeing that they are not getting any one person for a year. immediate assistance from the loan program that they asked for. Small communities are going under. Part of this is because of the rise in prices of corn that they must use in that industry. Ï (1015) Somehow we must get a balance and also assist those in parts of the agriculture industry who are suffering because of this demand for I would like us to take this debate forward and to look at biofuels biofuels. The government still has not been able to address the from the aspects of the environment, of food security and from our fundamental needs of these producers who are struggling to survive.
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