Discussion · Government Orders
Ted Falk Conservative
“The price of diesel fuel almost doubled this past year. Farmers must absorb these higher costs because they cannot set the market prices for their crops. At the same time, truckers and food processors pass high fuel costs along to shoppers, which makes food more expensive. We should pass this bill to lower fuel taxes.”
“Mr. Speaker, it is true that farmers have to absorb the cost of increased diesel fuel prices, and they have increased almost 100%. In other words, for Canadians watching today, the price of diesel fuel has almost doubled in this last year, and farmers have no choice. They have to put diesel fuel into their combines, trucks and tractors, and they also have to then have that product shipped to the elevator and shipped to a rail yard before it can be sent to a processing facility, where it gets processed and manufactured into food products, which again get shipped with a transport truck across the highway, burning diesel fuel at $2.60 a litre. The food products finally get delivered to a warehouse, and from a warehouse, they will get picked up one more time by a semi-truck and delivered to a retailer for distribution or for sale to the public. All of those activities require the use of diesel fuel, and when diesel fuel has increased by almost 100% in the last year for the farmer, there is nothing he can do about it, because his prices for his products are commodity prices. They are market-based. However, for the transport companies and for the processors, the price of increased fuel and energy costs are actually being put onto the backs of consumers who are buying those products, because they are just moved along, and the farmers absorb it. Processors and truckers do their best to pass those costs along to the consumer, the end user.”
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Mr. Speaker, it is true that farmers have to absorb the cost of increased diesel fuel prices, and they have increased almost 100%. In other words, for Canadians watching today, the price of diesel fuel has almost doubled in this last year, and farmers have no choice. They have to put diesel fuel into their combines, trucks and tractors, and they also have to then have that product shipped to the elevator and shipped to a rail yard before it can be sent to a processing facility, where it gets processed and manufactured into food products, which again get shipped with a transport truck across the highway, burning diesel fuel at $2.60 a litre. The food products finally get delivered to a warehouse, and from a warehouse, they will get picked up one more time by a semi-truck and delivered to a retailer for distribution or for sale to the public. All of those activities require the use of diesel fuel, and when diesel fuel has increased by almost 100% in the last year for the farmer, there is nothing he can do about it, because his prices for his products are commodity prices. They are market-based. However, for the transport companies and for the processors, the price of increased fuel and energy costs are actually being put onto the backs of consumers who are buying those products, because they are just moved along, and the farmers absorb it. Processors and truckers do their best to pass those costs along to the consumer, the end user.