Bill 209: The Farmers' Market Week Act

On Tuesday May 24th, I spoke in support of a bill to recognize the importance of Farmers' Markets in Manitoba.  My comments are below:

Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Madam Speaker, farmers' markets are open, friendly places to get fresh, locally produced produce. They are won­derful op­por­tun­ities to meet with and share stories with farmers, understand farming, as well as to enrich your diet and improve the nutrition in your daily life.

      Madam Speaker, I certainly enjoy, as does my wife Naomi, going to the St. Norbert Farmers' Market, to the River Heights Farmers' Market, to farmers' markets when I'm in the area–Altona, Portage and others–the many, all over Manitoba.

      The varieties of fresh produce, vegetables, fruits abound. And usually there are a lot of ad­di­tional special items which are homemade, from jewellery to pottery to wooden products; they're exciting places to be.

      One of the regulars at the River Heights Farmers' Market is a farmer by the name of Stefan Regnier from near St. François Xavier. He has an organic farm. In addition to vegetables and fruits, he has honey and teas, free-run chickens and is a good source of infor­ma­tion about what's happening. He uses compost­able containers. He's an example of a friendly farmer with forward-thinking ideas, concerned about climate change and the environ­ment, as well as producing really good produce.

      This year, the ground has been wet there, and in so many other areas. There's even some standing water in his fields. Like many farmers, he's late putting in his crops as a result of the weather. So, inside his greenhouses the tomatoes are already well on their way. Outside in the field, he has managed to put in onions. He's getting ready to put in pumpkins, tomatoes, cucumbers, kale, lettuce, potatoes, carrots and much, much more.

      At the River Heights Farmers' Market, there are many other vendors, producers, breads, delicacies, some­times delicious fish sandwiches and a variety of craft products.

      At the St. Norbert Farmers' Market, there's a wider variety of produce from local farmers, including bison and lamb, as well as pork, beef, chicken and all sorts of homemade treats.

      And they are a joy to visit. They are fun to chat with people there, about their produce and their crafts, and very interesting places to be at Saturday morning in St. Norbert; or in River Heights, if you have a chance, it's Friday afternoons, starting in July 8th, continuing to July–or September 30th this year, 12 o'clock to 5 o'clock in the afternoon. A good op­por­tun­ity to pick up produce before you head out to the lake and a great place to meet people and get some good food.

      Manitoba Liberals support the last full week in July as farmers' markets week. It'll be an op­por­tun­ity to celebrate the farmers' market tradition and to recog­nize that we can still, today, in Manitoba, and parti­cularly during the summer and fall, get much of what we need to eat directly from farmers at our local farmers' market.

      There are many ad­di­tional benefits: the dev­elop­ment of entrepreneurs, the local economy, the dev­elop­ment of young farmers and small busi­nesses, the positive impact on the environ­ment, the ability to operate during COVID when there were always concerns about transport from further away and, of course, building positive relations with farmers.

      It's a very positive bill, and I hope that we can all support it.