The Conservative Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Agri-Food says he's concerned by what he heard in the federal budget.
John Barlow says this is a government that promised to get their their spending under control, get deficits under control and start to work towards a balanced budget - but that obviously did not happen.
"Only a couple of months ago they admitted deficit spending was fueling inflation, they were going to try and get inflation under control. But when you table a budget with $50 billion in new spending and a $40 billion deficit this is
going to fan the flames of inflation, its going to do the exact opposite. When Canadians are worried about the cost of living and we have double digit food inflation that is a big concern."
He says overall in agriculture they were happy to see the funding allocated for the vaccine bank for Foot and Mouth Disease.
"This is something that we had been pushing quite aggressively on. We do want to ensure that funding is a commitment. There's a line there that they will be looking for a cost-share partnership with the provinces and territories is a little concerning. We want to know if that funding is contingent on that. We know how crucial that vaccine bank is to ensure and be proactive in protecting Canada from an outbreak of foot and mouth disease which we know would be devastating to our livestock sector."
Barlow admits there are some good things there, but points out they asked the government to step back on the carbon tax and not increase it on April 1st, but that didn't happen.
"We know farmers are facing record high input costs and that's going to become worse on April 1st with that increase on the carbon tax."
On April 1st the carbon tax will increase by 25 per cent or another 2.2 cents per litre on gas.
Barlow points out the increase in the interest free limit under the Advance Payments program is just increasing the limit on their credit card.
He adds it's interesting that this budget included the conservative Private Member's bills that we've brought forward, including the right to repair by my colleague from Saskatchewan, Jeremy Patzer.
"You know, sometimes you don't always get the credit as opposition on the work that you do. But this is when you find issues and policies that are good ideas and when the Liberals steal those ideas and put them in the budget. That is kudos to the good work for the Conservatives and the work that we have done as the official opposition."
You can listen to Glenda-Lee's conversation with John Barlow by clicking on the link below.