Shields advocates for Canadian sugar beet refineries

By Cal Braid
Taber Times
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Bow River MP Martin Shields continues to demonstrate to the nation that southern Alberta matters. He does so regularly in the House of Commons and in his dealings in Ottawa, where he spends substantial time.

 During the HOC debates of Nov. 19, Shields and Brian Masse, MP of Windsor West, Ont. had a brief exchange during a discussion about international trade. The debate was veering off course in half a dozen different directions when Shields caught Masse’s attention with the following:

 “Madam Speaker, to my hon. colleague, with his long history on this file and his tremendous understanding of our industry; one industry that I am concerned about is sugar beets and sugar in Canada. We are down eight per cent, and we now import from various sources that do not have the same environmental standards we do in Canada. They used to have sugar beet refining in Ontario. They now grow them in Ontario but ship them a long way away, to Michigan, on trucks.”

 Shields asked, “What would his opinion be on trade, that we are getting cane syrup from somewhere else in some of the countries that would not have the standards for labour or the environment that we do in Canada?”

 Masse was more than willing to engage. “I actually appreciate this question,” he said. “It is an interesting case. I am somewhat familiar with the sugar beet issue because it is part of how dependent we have become upon others for refining. We can start to look at some of the refining in Canada, for example, even the refining of rice.”

 “The member brings up a really interesting point, which is that we are actually creating more production costs by having to ship products to the United States,” Masse said. “We do not have a good system in place to deal with it, and we could actually have the investment grow for refining, replacing manufacturing equipment and so forth.”

 Masse advocated for the capital cost reduction allowance and ensuring that the subsidy goes to the actual equipment and not the manufacturing company. “It is harder to take the equipment away, and this actually allows for the increase…Sugar beet refining is a good example of several sectors out there that may seem single and small on their own, but when we start to lump them together, we are losing our impact.”

 Currently, there is only one sugar beet refinery in the entire country (in Taber) and it provides the only source of 100 per cent Canadian sugar products. Alberta’s sugar industry provides over 2000 jobs, $50 million in labor income, and nearly $250 million in economic contribution, according to the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers.