Mr. Speaker, that was a good show from everybody.
We are here talking about the Conservative opposition motion. It is tough, because I disagree with the premise of the motion. The Conservatives are once again fabricating affordability. There are very real affordability challenges that Canadians are facing, but the Conservatives are blaming them on simply the wrong thing. If they ask any food scientist or any poverty reduction analyst, they will tell them that one of the number one drivers of food inflation these days is climate change, yet the text of the motion makes absolutely no reference to climate change and the impacts that extreme weather events are having on food prices or on the yields for Canadian farmers or farmers around the world.
In fact the motion just makes up a bunch of so-called taxes on food, taxes that do not exist. Canadians go to the grocery store. They know that their groceries and produce are not taxed at the grocery store, so it is really a false notion, a false flag, and it is something I am happy to talk about because our government is working very hard to address the affordability challenges that Canadians are facing these days, with real solutions, not the bluster and the made-up, fake notions the Conservatives have put forth.
Not only are the Conservatives just making things up; they are also, once again, shamelessly working for the oil and gas and plastics lobby. There is nothing wrong with reducing plastics pollution. I have spent a lot of time on the water, and there is always waterborne plastic floating in our waterways. We can do a lot to reduce that, and we ought to. I do not agree with the Conservatives' “make plastic polluting free again” motions they bring forward in the House on behalf of the plastics and oil and gas lobby time and time again.
I also do not agree with their efforts to roll back the farmer-led and ag sector-led changes that are ensuring that our agriculture sector in Canada is competitive, clean, green and sustainable. Farmers in Canada are on the front lines of climate change. They know full well that the changing weather and extreme weather are having a negative impact on their yields and a negative impact on the price of food for Canadians. That is what we have been talking about today: real measures that Canadians are seeking, to address the affordability challenges at the grocery store.
I find it very hypocritical that probably 75% of the questions we received in question period today were about the rising use of food banks in Canada, which is a real concern. Food Banks Canada not only serves Canadians; it also makes recommendations to the Government of Canada and to governments across the country. The Conservatives are very happy to say that food bank use is on the rise, but then they ignore the first page of the report, which is their opportunity to lean in on some of the recommendations that poverty-reduction experts are making.
Namely, the experts want us to continue to bolster our social safety net. They want to make sure that services like child care, reduced-cost child care, reduced-cost dental care and $10-a-day child care are more available for Canadian families. They know that the tax cut we made earlier this year supports families and affordability, and they also know that when we build more affordable housing, we make a direct impact on affordability for families.
My colleagues on this side of the House have been focusing on the government supports and commitments to the men and women who work very hard to put food on the table for their family. To our farm families right across this great nation, and particularly to those in Burlington North—Milton West, I want to say thank you for all the hard work and determination they put forth in order to produce the food we consume as Canadians. Our hard-working and skilled farmers right across the country form the foundation of Canada's food system. I love shopping local. I will be home on Saturday, so I hope I will see some Miltonians out at the world-renowned Milton Farmers' Market.
Our farmers are going to keep feeding Canadians and the world. We need to continue to partner with them in the face of the extreme weather we have been seeing in recent years, and that is why many of the changes we have been making to the ag sector are farmer-led and farmer-informed. We only have to look at the fires in western Canada and right across this country this summer to see how vulnerable our lands are to extreme weather.
It has been said before: Canadian farmers are on the front lines of climate change. They know full well the impacts of climate change and what they are on our food security, but it is also true that in recent years their farms and farm operations have been devastated by a series of climate disasters, from floods to droughts and forest fires, and this past year was no exception, with severe droughts devastating farmers' crops in key production regions across the country. These are just a few examples of the challenges our producers are having with respect to production.
When my family settled in southwestern Ontario in the 1950s, they were Dutch, so they went straight to the farms and started working on them until they could afford some land of their own, and they farmed apples. The cost of apples is going up, and when the cost of apples is going up at this time of year, we know the apples are mostly not domestic, Canadian, ones, so with respect to a lot of the measures that the Conservatives put forth, such as bringing back plastic pollution for packaging on Canadian foods, and whether or not they would help, I would posit that they would not. They would only make plastic pollution more prevalent in our waterways, but that would not have an impact on Canadian apples. It would have an impact on pollution levels.
Provincial governments and other jurisdictions made changes to the rules and regulations on grocery bags. Everybody remembers how back in the day we all used to have hundreds of bags underneath our sink. Now we do not, and we have less plastic pollution as a result, because stores put a small price on a plastic bag and offered alternatives like reusable bags and paper bags, which are far more sustainable. We can do the same thing with our food packaging, but unfortunately and shamelessly, the Conservatives are here on behalf of the plastics industry to suggest that plastic is cheaper. It is far less sustainable to have plastic packaging, and the Conservatives' motion is actually quite ignorant in that regard.
Speaking of ignorance, we are talking about hunger and about food security. The number one way that poverty reduction analysts right across this country and right across the world want to address food insecurity, particularly in schools, is to have a well-funded national school food program. In my jurisdiction, there are lots of great providers. I know that they are doing a great job. I occasionally go to schools and hand out snacks, and school food programs are having a really positive impact on the health and well-being of students. They are certainly having a positive impact on learning outcomes. Teachers and educators across the country have indicated that they have a positive impact on students' reading, writing, math and science grades. They go up when the kids are not hungry. It is not a surprise.
I am also a huge advocate for physical activity in schools, as the secretary of state for sport. I know that when I was a kid, if I did not get a bit of physical activity at recess, if it was raining or there was other inclement weather outside, I was stir-crazy in class. It helps me a lot in my work to get out, even just for a three-kilometre or four-kilometre run with some of my friends who are right back here behind me. I thank my running pals for backing me up today.
Whether it is through physical activity in schools or healthy school foods, our government is here for kids, for educators and for parents, and that is a real affordability measure. Two hundred dollars a month can be saved when national school food programs are implemented in our spaces. They have a direct, positive impact on learning outcomes and on the health of kids. I just cannot imagine how the leader of the Conservative Party could stand up today and talk about how his parents were teachers, yet instruct all his caucus, the entire Conservative Party, to vote against a national school food program. It is just astonishing.
How can one be against healthy food for kids? If someone is going to stand up in the House every day and say that Canadians are having a tough time at the grocery store, which may be true, let us find a way to help. Conservatives stand up in the House and use the report from Food Banks Canada, saying it says this, that and the other, but the report also says that we should bolster our social safety net, build more affordable housing, focus on a northern food security program and support Canadians with things like $10-a-day child care, dental care and a tax cut.
We are doing those things, and the Conservatives are voting against all of them, day in and day out, so I am urging the Conservatives to stop using the Food Banks Canada report as if it were in line with any of their policies or recommendations, because it is not. The Food Banks report does not say we should bring back plastic pollution. It does not say that we should roll back some of the ag-led and farmer-led measures that have reduced waste in farming.