NEWS RELEASE

April 29, 2004                                                                                             For Immediate Release

WILL THE LIBERALS FORCE US TO FEED BEANO AND TUMS TO OUR COWS?

“Farmers should be worrying about what the Liberals will do with the results of this study.”

Ottawa – During yesterday’s Question Period, Garry Breitkreuz, Conservative M.P. for Yorkton-Melville, ridiculed the Liberal government for its plans to waste another $50,000 of your hard-earned money studying how much methane is produced by Canada’s cows.  “Wasting $50,000 is one thing, but what I really worry about is what Liberal politicians will do with the results of this study,” cautioned Breitkreuz. 

Here is the text of Breitkreuz’s statement in the House of Commons:

Mr. Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville, CPC): Mr. Speaker, have you heard the latest emanation from Ottawa? The government is launching a $50,000 study to find out how much methane is coming out of both ends of Canada's cows. This is not a joke. This supposedly is to help the Liberals meet their promised greenhouse gas quota in their useless Kyoto Accord. What are they going to do, tell farmers to get rid of their cows if they burp and pass gas too much? Like the Liberal government has not done enough to harm the cattle industry by mismanaging the BSE crisis.  Before the Liberals waste another 50 grand, maybe they should do a study of Ottawa's gaseous output, especially the amount of hot gas coming off the Liberal's front bench when they criss-cross the country spending billions of taxpayers' money making announcement after announcement, while at the same time insisting they are not campaigning. Now that is a lot of hot air.

“So once the Liberals find out how much methane a bovine burps, what will they do?” asked Breitkreuz.  “Hire a bevy of bureaucrats to go farm to farm with methane meters and then tax farmers for the gaseous emissions produced by their cows?  Or will they force farmers to buy Beano and Tums for all their cows?  The Liberals made a big mistake ratifying the Kyoto Accord without knowing the consequences for the Canadian economy.  Then, they compound the problem by making more and more mistakes to try and justify their first one.  Does anyone trust Paul Martin’s Liberals to do anything right anymore?

-30-