Poilievre talks agriculture and housing during Oxford County visit
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
By Lee Griffi
Federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre made a rare stop in Oxford County at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show on Saturday as the guest of Oxford MP Arpan Khanna.
Grant Haven Media was given an exclusive interview with Poilievre before his speaking engagement and before trade talks with the Americans broke down. One of the topics covered was agriculture and how we as a country can become more self-sustainable in the sector.
“What we need to do is lower the cost burden on farmers to make them more competitive,” Poilievre said. “In Canada today, we have a lot of government costs that other farmers do not face. The industrial carbon tax on fertilizer, farm equipment and food processing drives up the inputs to grow the food we eat.”
He added taxes on fuel make it more expensive to grow and ship food, as Canadians spend about 20 cents per litre more for gas and diesel compared to our American counterparts.
“We need to get rid of all those taxes; that’s the starting point. That would allow us to produce not just more food, but more fertilizer and more farm equipment at a lower price. There is also a lot of red tape CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) has imposed that really doesn’t help food safety.”
Poilievre also explained there are dozens of regulations that apply to our producers but don’t apply to their foreign counterparts.
“If these things were really necessary for safe food consumption, we wouldn’t let foreign farms and food processors go around the rules.”
Homelessness and the related issues of mental health and drug abuse may not be a direct federal issue, but the Conservative leader said there are two main reasons why they are such a problem in Canada.
“One is the cost of housing; the other is the drugs. The number one cost driver of housing in Canada is government. It’s taxes, development charges, fees, delays, permitting, zoning, land restrictions, then all of the consultants, lobbyists, lawyers and accountants you have to hire to comply with an endless list of rules and regulations that do absolutely nothing to protect our safety or our environment.”
He added Canada has the second-lowest rate of building permits of all 38 countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and has among the highest building taxes.
“We need to get rid of all taxes on homebuilding. That includes no sales tax, no carbon tax on housing materials and lower taxes on the workers and companies who build the homes. Second, we need to incentivize municipalities through infrastructure dollars to speed up permits, free up land and collect development charges.”
Poilievre also wants to see the federal building code changed to emphasize affordability. When it comes to illegal drugs, he wants to see much stiffer punishments for dealers.
“Right now, when someone gets caught for trafficking meth or fentanyl, they get a slap on the wrist. I want life sentences for fentanyl dealers who sell more than 40 milligrams. That’s enough to kill 20 people. …You might as well take a gun and fire it into a stadium full of people because that’s how likely you are to kill somebody. It can stop someone’s breathing in three seconds.”
He also wants to see an end to safe supply programs across the country, calling them “hard production” rather than harm reduction.
“They call it safe supply; it’s unsafe supply. I want to scrap all those programs and put people in treatment and recovery programs. Conservatives are going to push a bill for mandatory drug treatment for people who are arrested on possession of illegal substances. Not the dealers; they are going to go to the slammer and never get out. The victims should be put into treatment programs to get them off drugs and turn their lives around.”
Poilievre added no other country in the world is providing safe supply.
“If you go to Europe, you don’t see this. You don’t see people folded over on fentanyl in Spain, France or Germany. It doesn’t exist. They don’t do this kind of insanity. Our government is doing it to us, and we can stop it, and I will.”
When asked what he enjoys most about his job as federal opposition leader, he said he loves meeting with the incredible Canadian people as often as he can, including many young employees at Stubbe’s Precast plant in Hickson.
“They have a lineup of people on that floor, 18 years old, who are building moulds for beautiful new homes, working with rebar and cranking out six million square feet of housing every single year. These kids are just unbelievable. Their work ethic, their brain power.”
Poilievre said the most frustrating part of his job is having a government in power he says isn’t worthy of the people it represents.
“We have the most impressive population in the world in terms of our values, our education. Yet the government is just not living up to their standards. It frustrates the hell out of me when I see the government screwing things up, preventing our kids from owning homes and letting crime run rampant in our streets. If it weren’t so obvious what to do, I wouldn’t be so frustrated.”
Over 3,000 people attended the party’s community barbecue with Poilievre and other Conservative MPs.
“I was humbled by the tremendous support, energy and enthusiasm … in Woodstock on Saturday,” said Oxford MP Arpan Khanna.
“It was an honour to speak with so many people about the challenges facing our country, including the ongoing trade dispute with the United States, the rising cost of living and the need to make our communities safer. We discussed our Conservative plan to lower costs, strengthen our economy, restore safe streets and put Canada first.”
He added the party will never stop fighting for the families, seniors, farmers, workers and small business owners who are the backbone of our country.
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