Canada: Food and energy superpower. We should start acting like it.
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Transcript of Canada: Food and energy superpower. We should start acting like it.
PREMIER OF SASKATCHEWAN
LEGISLATIVE BUILDING REGINA CANADA S4S 0B3
6th Annual Manning Networking Conference Ottawa Convention Centre, Ottawa
“Canada: Food and energy superpower. We should start acting like it.”
February 28, 2014 Premier Brad Wall’s Address
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“Canada: Food and energy superpower.
We should start acting like it.”
Speech by Premier Brad Wall
to the 6th Annual Manning Networking Conference
February 28, 2014
(Applause)
PREMIER BRAD WALL: Good morning. Good morning. You should sit down.
You haven't heard what I have to say yet --
(Laughter)
-- but thank you very much for that warm welcome. Preston, thanks for the
introduction. And Mr. Strahl, and to the Board, and to the Manning Centre,
thanks for this Conference. Thank you for the chance to participate with you
here today.
Preston touched on some of the things that have been
happening in Saskatchewan. We always make sure that people understand
that the government is not taking credit for some of the good news that‟s
occurring in the province in terms of the lowest unemployment rate and
some record investment that‟s happened and some of the good economic
numbers. I think yesterday the weekly earning numbers were out again and I
think we were third in the country in terms of an increase and we‟re usually
in that range. Credit for all of those things goes to the people of the Province
of Saskatchewan, goes to our SMEs, our small businesses, the large
corporations, world-class champions that we have in Saskatchewan. We also
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need to recognize good fortune and providential blessings. We have a lot of
things going for us and we try to do that.
But we are, as a government, trying to stay out of the way of
people that can create economic advantage. We‟re also trying to set the right
tone, the right business climate, the right investment environment in
Saskatchewan and that does include some of the measures around fiscal
probity that Preston mentioned.
We will, in a couple of weeks, table in the Saskatchewan
Legislature the seventh consecutive balanced budget and --
(Applause)
-- it‟s my observation this morning that none of them balance themselves.
(Laughter)
They all took some decisions and some of them are challenging, especially
this year with revenue flat, but we know the importance of fiscal
responsibility as a cornerstone of our growth agenda.
Speaking about Saskatchewan outside the province is one of
the best parts of my job. It‟s why I often say I think I have the -- I have the
best job in Canada. Some of my staff, because they're unhelpful, wanted to
test that thesis and they actually determined that I don't even have the best
job amongst people named Brad Wall. There's a Brad Wall that‟s a pro bass
fisherman in the United States doing pretty well. There's a Brad Wall who's a
pretty good mixed marshal artist. There is a Brad Wall who is on the
Australian PGA. He's a professional golfer. And maybe most troubling of all,
we found in the Wall Street Journal reference to a Brad Wall -- and I'm not
making this up -- who is the senior vice-president of Krispy Kreme
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Doughnuts.
(Laughter)
He is responsible for the supply chaining for the doughnut company and so
this takes him all over the United States where he must ensure the logistics of
doughnut sales and apparently test the doughnuts and for this, he makes $1
million a year.
(Laughter)
So I now know how 30 percent of the people of Saskatchewan feel because I
hate Brad Wall too.
(Laughter)
I should also bring you greetings this morning on behalf of
Rider Nation.
(Applause)
I'm not sure if you've heard, but we won the Grey Cup this year.
(Applause)
And the Rider Nation is a goal-oriented nation and we've set a goal to be
insufferable for the rest of this season and I think we may be -- yes, thank
you. Deb says we‟re doing well, especially in places like Winnipeg and
Calgary and Winnipeg, if I haven't mentioned that.
(Laughter)
Some people have pointed out to us, by the way, that, you
know, before you get all about the Riders, you've only won four
championships in the 101-year history of the CFL. This is true, but we always
point out that since 2007, since the government changed, we've been in four
and we've won two.
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(Laughter)
And some have pointed out to me, by the way, that the Saskatchewan
Roughriders have never won a Grey Cup during the 47-year rule of the
CCF/NDP.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
Some have asked me if I'm going to use that in the next election
campaign. Yes, actually, we are going to use it.
(Laughter)
So, ladies and gentlemen, the context for my remarks
this morning is the simple premise that today we live in a world where
the fastest growing economies in that world prize food security and
energy security. Their middle classes are growing rapidly. They are
demanding ever more protein-intense diets, new technologies, modern
comforts, better transportation. So, in that world -- and forgive me the
use of this too-oft implied rhetorical device, but in that world I want to
tell you about a place.
This place is the sixth largest producer of crude oil on
the planet. It has the third largest proven oil reserves on earth. It
produces in any given year 15 to 20 percent of the world‟s supply of
uranium and the richest grade of uranium you'll find anywhere in the
world. It is a home to energy innovation, proving to the world even
that clean coal is not an oxymoron focused on technologies for
sustainable energy development.
This place also, by the way in this context this morning,
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has land and a lot of land, the third largest number of arable acres per
capita on the planet. This place is the third largest wheat exporter in
the world. It produces 51 percent of the world‟s lentils. Think about
that in those fast-growing economies that want protein replacement.
Half of the lentils on earth come from this place; 48 percent of the
world‟s pea exports; 43 percent of the world‟s mustard exports. Fifteen
percent of that comes back and ends up, I think, on my ties. Forty-two
percent of the world‟s canola seed exports; 41 percent of the world‟s
canola oil exports. This place produces 30 percent of the world‟s
flaxseed exports and it is home to 45 percent of the known reserves of
that very strategic fertilizer, especially in those growing economies,
known as potash, 45 percent of the world‟s reserves. It‟s home to --
(Applause)
Yeah, we should clap for that.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
It‟s home to leading agricultural technologies,
biosciences, life sciences, yes, GMO technologies that are helping to
feed a hungry world. Remembering again the context this morning, the
fast growing economies of the world want food security and energy
security. This place must be well positioned, wouldn't you think? This
place must have a very bright future ahead of it given that context,
never mind whatever other resources it might have. Just in terms of
these two areas, its future is bright.
But I think there's something a little troubling about
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that place this morning as well. Some of her leadership, some of her
“elite” are not very comfortable with some of these facts it would seem,
maybe unaware, but I think mostly uncomfortable; some even ashamed
of some of those things this place has to offer. Of course, I'm talking
about the country that you love, the country that I love, that beautiful
and bountiful expansive odds-defined, promise-filled Dominion of
Canada. And Canada is at a most propitious point in its history
because we are an energy power with opportunity to increase that
standing. And we are a food power with opportunity to increase that
standing into superpower status. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a good
thing for a country, for yours. We ought to be proud of it. We ought to
never be ashamed that we have these things that the world wants.
And by the way, if one region of the country might have
the elements of this truth, whatever those were, in some greater
proportion than other regions of the country, let us all rally around
them and help them develop those, help them explore new markets,
ensure that we have opportunity for today and legacy for tomorrow
because what is good for one region of this country is good for all of
Canada.
(Applause)
In Saskatchewan, we do not yet have any commercial
oil sands development. We have the geology. Our Energy Minister is
here. He's been working with Cenovus. They have a play up there.
They're looking at it, but we do not yet have a commercial play for oil
sands in Northern Saskatchewan, but we are glad that Alberta does.
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We are proud that Alberta has this resource. We are proud that Alberta
companies, together with the government, are working to ensure that it
is sustainably developed. It puts us on the world energy map in a big
way. It‟s why we have the third most proven reserves on earth. We
should all be proud of that.
In Saskatchewan, we‟re the second largest producer of
oil in Canada and we have a large share of the Bakken Formation. The
Bakken Formation, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, is the
largest conventional play in North America, bigger than Prudhoe Bay,
one that we share grudgingly with Montana and North Dakota. We‟re
trying to take care of that through horizontal drilling, you know, but --
(Laughter)
-- but I hope you're proud of that. I hope the rest of the country sees
this as an asset for all of Canada.
We have the richest uranium on earth in that 17 to 20
percent. We think this is a good thing. It ought to be a source of pride
as we sustainably develop it. And 45 percent of all the world‟s potash
in this completely contrived place that‟s hard to spell and easy to draw,
the Province of Saskatchewan, in a world that wants that strategic
fertilizer. We hope the country would be proud of that.
Today, China is growing at a sluggish 7.5 percent. The
ASEAN, 5.1 percent. Indonesia‟s about 6.2 at 230 million people.
India, 5.4 percent. They need and they will need for some time the
building blocks of a growing economy - energy. Consider then the
opportunity for us in this country. Consider the opportunity right at
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our Pacific doorstep. We are an energy power. We ought to be aspirant
to be an energy superpower and then we ought to talk like it and we
ought to act like it.
According to the United Nations, the world will have to
grow 70 percent -- think about this now -- 70 percent more food by
2050 just to keep up with population growth. Consider then the
opportunity right at our Pacific doorstep, right at our Atlantic doorstep.
We are a food power. We ought to be aspirant to being a food
superpower. Then we should act like it. We should claim it. We
should boldly stake a claim to these things and work that claim as
though we were amidst a rush of Yukon proportions. And we need to
refute or maybe at best politely ignore those who opine against
boldness in our country, those who say it is un-Canadian to make such
claims, let alone to act on them. I think they have forgotten that our
country was built against every continental tendency, built across
unimaginable distance and terrain, bridging deep and dangerous
chasms in language and religion and culture, built effectively by a
railroad, a state crafter from Kingston, a couple of cases of Madeira,
and epic boldness, audacity.
You know, a few years ago our country was getting
ready to host the Vancouver Olympics. The Canadian Olympic
Committee introduced a new program and, you know, it was
considered a departure. I don't know if you remember the debate that
ensued. It was called “Own the Podium.” They had a detailed plan
about improving Canada‟s Olympic performance. They were going to
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identify those things we could excel at. They were going to resource
them and support our athletes and it was going to start with an attitude
or maybe more accurately an attitude change. It was about believing
that our country and her athletes could be the best in the world. I've
never understood why, but this made a lot of people very
uncomfortable.
You'll recall that when “Own the Podium” was first
announced, there was some handwringing and some tut-tutting and
people did say that it seemed to be a little un-Canadian. Here's an
example: (Audio recording)
This was during the Canadian
Olympics. The Canadians were saying,
“Own the Podium,” and I put out
something that said, “Oh, it‟s a bit
brash to say. It‟s a bit un-Canadian.
It‟s a bit too brash to say, „Own the
Podium.‟”
I don't want to pick on Margaret Atwood.
(Laughter)
She was not the only person saying these things. There were others,
but I wanted to show you that clip for two reasons. First, I know
Margaret Atwood will be excited that she spoke to the Manning
Conference this year.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
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But, second, maybe we should consider what she had to say. Maybe
she's right. See what you think. (Audio recording of „O Canada‟)
(Applause)
Looks pretty Canadian to me.
In our province, we had to overcome some attitudinal
challenges not very long ago. When we were in Opposition, our then
Leader, Elwin Hermanson, put forward an economic plan for the
province informed by a goal, informed by a population goal actually.
We thought that would be a good measure as a province that too often
bought luggage for students when they graduated because they were
going somewhere else. Population was an important metric for our
economic progress and so we set this objective of the province growing
by a hundred thousand people in ten years. And at the time many in
academia weighed in and said unequivocally that this was not
achievable, that the government ought never to base its policies of the
day on growth because it wasn't possible.
Remember the resources that we‟re talking about, the
people that we‟re talking about. And government of the day was
listening to those who said those things because I was in the Legislature
when a Finance Minister for the NDP government who -- I'm not going
to name him, but his initials are -- Harry Van Mulligen said that --
(Laughter)
-- that this was farcical. Actually, that was a quote. It was completely
unrealistic for the province to grow in this way. Think about this. We
were advocating that province‟s population grow by the national
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average, one percent a year. We weren't talking about finding Bigfoot
and the view was that this was not achievable.
Well, those people were right. The province didn't grow
by a hundred thousand people in ten years. It did it in six.
(Applause)
Now, the point is that attitudinal shifts are important.
The point I'm trying to make this morning, “Own the Podium” is
working. It doesn't guarantee victory. It doesn't guarantee success, but
it gives us the best chance at success and that does sound pretty
Canadian to me. If Canada can own the podium in Olympic sports, we
can do it economically. We can identify our strengths. We can focus on
them. We can stop being afraid of talking about what those strengths
might be and defending our economic interest. We can own the energy
podium and the food podium, but it‟s not just enough to say it; we‟re
going to need a plan. And some of the things that our current federal
government has done, a lot of the things are taking us down the road to
that plan already.
First and foremost, we need to maintain the
fundamentals in this country, fiscal responsibility. We need to make
sure our taxes are competitive. If we‟re going to own those podiums,
we need to make sure our regulatory environment is competitive. If
we‟re going to own those podiums, we need to make sure we are
balancing the budget. Thomas Jefferson said, “We must make our
election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude.”
We've got to lay the case out pretty good. We ought to choose economy
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and liberty. The point is without fiscal discipline and a sensible
competitive tax system, we will not make progress. It'll be difficult to
own those podiums.
Second, we need to invest in innovation, especially in
these areas. There needs to be public investment where it‟s not a
commercial proposition just yet and more private investment where it
can be.
In Saskatchewan, we are showing that clean coal is not
an oxymoron. We‟re going to go live on the world‟s largest clean-coal
project in Southeast Saskatchewan. We‟re taking CO2 off of the -- off a
coal-fired plant. We‟re selling it to the oil companies who are using it
as a solvent and re-animating previously thought to be old well sites,
increasing production, and then we‟re going to store it as we have been
storing it in Saskatchewan for about 20 years. We'll store it
geologically.
We‟re investing in the private sector significantly in
agriculture and bioscience, in nuclear science in our province. As a
country, we need to focus on where we can win in food and energy and
also invest in innovation.
Third, and this is important. I'm going to spend just a
bit of time if you'll permit me. We need to make sure we are getting
what we have to market. If the world wants what we have, it‟s got to get
to those places. And what's happening today in the world and in our
country should alarm us all. There are 50 ships today waiting off the
Port of Vancouver and at Prince Rupert, empty and waiting for
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Saskatchewan and Canadian grain. Our logistic system simply can't get
it to them right now. Japan has switched their wheat buying from our
country to the United States. We haven't made any sales to Algeria yet.
That's a solid customer, not because we don't have the wheat, but we
can't get it there, so the grain handlers, the marketers, aren't making
those calls because they know they can't deliver. If we‟re going to be a
food power, if we‟re going to be an energy power, an export power,
we've got to make sure that we have the logistics in this country.
And we need to support the federal government and
Minister Ritz has been doing a good job on this file. We need to
support them to take whatever steps they need to take to ensure that
this issue is dealt with today and for the long term.
And for those in --
(Applause)
For those who aren't that familiar with agriculture,
maybe they live far away from it, this underscores both Canada‟s ability
to produce world-class crops in terms of volume and quality and how it
impacts people. The officials tell us that we‟re 15 to 20 days away of
General Mills running out of oats for Cheerios, 15 to 20 days away
because they can't get it. We‟re a principal supplier of that crop and I
don't know about you, but I like Cheerios and I -- and all the other
things that come from that particular crop. And it underscores how
important your country is, doesn't it, in that value chain if that‟s what
those U.S. food processors are saying. Fifteen days worth of supply and
then it‟s done. This is an important issue.
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The fourth element, I think -- we think is international
engagement. CETA is a good deal. Credit the federal government for
herding all the provincial (inaudible) in all the sectors and all the
industry to conclude a historic trade deal with the European Union.
It‟s going to be great for agriculture.
(Applause)
At our request, the federal government also has removed restrictions
on uranium investment in our province from companies in Europe.
We think that might mean about $2.5 billion in added investment in
greenfield projects in Saskatchewan. It‟s a good deal.
But, folks, if you like free trade with Europe, you're
going to love freer trade with Asia. And so we need as a country to
pivot to Asia, to conclude the next trade deal there, and it looks like it‟s
South Korea. And we need to make sure, ladies and gentlemen, that
not -- that there isn‟t one particular sector of the economy in our
country that holds up an important first Asian trade deal in South
Korea. And when that deal is over, let's get on to the next one and let's
encourage the federal government to pursue their multilateral
intentions at TPP and with the ASEAN region.
In five years, the combined Asian economies will be a
third larger than the EU economy. Between 2010 and 2025, Asian
populations are expected to grow by 550 million people, while Europe
is going to decline. You know, we always quote Wayne Gretzky.
Remember when he said, “Well, I was pretty good at hockey because I
anticipated where the puck was going to be rather than where it was,”
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and we quote him and then we really don‟t do anything about it. The
puck‟s been in Asia for a long time. It‟s going to be there and so the
steps the federal government is currently taking need to be encouraged
and accelerated so we can conclude those agreements.
Engagement, by the way, also means that we as
Canadians need to be ready to engage in the debate. Sometimes they're
controversial. That comes from increased trade and energy and food,
whether it‟s about bitumen or whether it‟s about GMOs. As Canadians,
we understand what John Adams said when he mentioned that, “Facts
are stubborn things.” We need to start though defending the facts and
articulating those facts in these debates that are occurring now here in
our country and in our customer countries, facts like -- in the context of
Keystone, facts like that there are today 80 pipelines carrying
hydrocarbons between Canada and the United States and they've been
doing it for years right under Daryl Hannah‟s nose.
(Laughter)
It means --
(Applause)
It means pointing out to Martin Sheen and Neil Young and Robert
Redford and other technical advisors to the Administration --
(Laughter)
-- that there is not another country on the planet that is an energy-
producing country that is investing more per capita or by any other
measure from a public sector and a private sector in improving the
sustainability of energy development. There simply isn't. You won't
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find one. There's not one investing more in terms of habitat,
reclamation, in innovation and energy, and we should tell somebody
that as they're making these decisions. It means pointing out, by the
way, also that our energy competitors -- because if you're not buying
from us, you're buying from someone else -- in many cases do fail in
unspeakable ways the cause of humanity, the cause of human rights
and liberty and that they have little to no public or private interest,
frankly, in the environmental issues around energy development. We
need to use the facts.
Where we can, we should use a bit of humour. About a
year ago I was in Washington lobbying on the Keystone and Martin
Sheen for whatever reason was in Saskatchewan at a conference and
the media scrummed him and asked him, “What do you think of the
fact that the Premier is in Washington lobbying for Keystone? Do you
have a message for him?” and he said, “Yes, yes, I do.” And here's what
he said to me through the media. He was talking to me. He said,
“Don‟t do this,” lobby for Keystone. “It‟s not going to be something
you're going to be proud of in the future.” And I heard that and I
thought, “I hope you said that to Charlie actually at some point.”
(Laughter)
That probably would have been --
(Applause)
We need to engage and when we do so, we need to be united, and so it
is not helpful.
I understand there's going to be a debate around energy
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in its different forms in our country. It‟s a free country. It‟s a
democracy, but when we go abroad, whether we‟re in opposition or
whether we‟re in government, when we go abroad and visit a capital
that might be making a decision that would have a huge economic
impact on thousands of families that work in the oil sands or the energy
sector in our country, maybe we should be a bit circumspect. Maybe we
should consider the interests of our country. And when I see
opposition politicians going down to Washington to lobby against the
interests of the economy of Western Canada, that is hard to understand
and we need to encourage those folks to stop doing that. Have the
debate. Have the discussion, but let's be united as we engage in --
maybe we ought not to call important parts of the economy that are
creating wealth for all of Canada a disease, the Dutch disease. Maybe
we ought not to do that either.
We also need to be --
(Applause)
As a country, we need to be as consistent as possible
when we engage. I am grateful that the Leader of the Third Party
supports Keystone. We should all be because this is this unity we‟re
talking about and consensus. We should support this fact. But I do not
know how you can support Keystone and be against Gateway. I don't
understand how you can make that argument, especially to our
American friends. How do you advocate for Keystone XL, which is a
pipeline carrying bitumen across the United States to the ocean, but be
against Gateway, which is a pipeline carrying bitumen across our
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country to the ocean? And I've had this put to me by the Chairman of
the Senate Energy Committee when I was there last March. He said,
“So you want us to approve Keystone? You can't even get Gateway
approved,” and I didn't have a real good answer for that. I don't think
the story about the sun and the wind is going to cut that. I think we
need to be consistent --
(Laughter)
-- when it comes to these issues of energy transportation.
Ladies and gentlemen, I just believe that we should be
very hopeful about the future of this country. If we get some of these
things right, I believe we can be an energy superpower. I believe we
can be a food superpower. And there's many other things we will offer
the world, but I want to focus on these things today. We need to claim
that though first as a goal and then act on it and, in order to act on it,
we‟re going to need political licence from our fellow citizens. We‟re
going to need their support. We‟re going to need to ensure that they
agree with this plan, that they like the action points to get us to where
we need to be.
And I want to close with this. We as free enterprisers
aren't very good at explaining the why, frankly. As I say, we‟re not very
good at finishing the sentence, the sentence that starts with, “I believe
in these free enterprise principles because it will grow the economy,
because,” and sometimes we talk about the GDP and maybe we'd get
the jobs and that‟s not even quite good enough, but I don't believe we‟re
able to answer -- to finish that sentence, to explain the why to people,
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why we would want them to come along on this journey and implement
these policies and aspire to these goals.
We‟re working hard in Saskatchewan to be able to
finish the sentence. In Saskatchewan, there's a fellow named Gordon
Eshappie (ph). He's a real person. Gord is a graduate of the
Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies. Since 2007, our
government has increased funding to that school by 47 percent because
they get results. They connect graduates with jobs. Gord is from the
Carry the Kettle First Nation. He became a journeyman electrician two
years ago. He passed his Red Seal test with a mark of 85 percent. And
his motivation is your motivation. He's got dreams for himself and for
his family and he also has another goal. He wants to inspire other
young people. He says, and I quote, “When I go home, back to Carry
the Kettle, all the kids run up to me and ask me how I became an
electrician. I tell them how and that they can do it too.”
We were able to increase funding to SIIT because of a
growing economy. Gordon was able to engage in the economy and be
an example to those young First Nations kids because of that growing
economy. He's the end of the sentence. We need to talk about him.
In Saskatoon, there lives a woman by the name of Gail
Dickson. Gail lives in a very small house with her guide dog, Daisy.
She has some severe and multiple disabilities and simply cannot work,
not won't work, cannot work. For years she's gotten by on social
assistance, welfare. And a few years ago advocates for that group in our
province, that wonderful group in our province, came to us and said,
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“We'd like you to just change the name. Don‟t even put any more
funding in, but we'd like it to be income support and not welfare
because this is different for us,” and we made that change. We
introduced something called Saskatchewan Assured Income for the
Disabled. It‟s known as SAID. And then we were able to increase a
little bit anyway. Some of the support here in the SAID program now
provides Gail with a couple of hundred bucks extra a month. And she
said, “I had a big stupid grin on my face when I received that first
cheque.” When she was on social assistance, you see, a family member
told Gail that she was embarrassed of her for receiving welfare. And
Gail said to us she doesn't feel ashamed anymore. She said, “It‟s like I
earn my money now because of my disability. I didn't do anything
wrong. I shouldn't feel ashamed. SAID gives me respect and I can take
care of myself.” The reason we were able to provide those few extra
hundred dollars every month to Gail is because of a growing economy.
It‟s because we‟re able to successfully export food and energy and Gail
Dickson is the end of the sentence.
(Applause)
They're the end of the sentence, Gord and Gail, and
they're the reasons that we should be bold.
So in a world where the fastest growing economies
prize food security and energy security, given that we have a lot to offer
that world, given that we know then what the end of the sentence is, is
it un-Canadian to boldly claim that this country ought to be a food
superpower, an energy superpower, and then enact a plan to achieve