We got to hear Dave Marit, the ag minister for the Canadian Province of Saskatchewan, speak in Scobey, Montana on Friday night. Very interesting comments about the carbon tax, prairie dogs, ag statistics, and more.

I also got the chance to chat with Marit Friday morning from the KCGM radio station in Scobey thanks to our friend and former State Senator John Brenden (R-Scobey). He serves with Marit on PNWER, The Pacific Northwest Economic Region.

On Friday night, Marit told the crowd about how the animal rights activists got the federal government in Canada to start going overboard protecting prairie dogs. He mentioned how the government started spraying chemicals on the prairie dogs in order to protect them from bugs, but then the chemicals started killing all sorts of amphibious species.

Earlier Friday, I asked him about the radical policies of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

How Trudeau is targeting Canadian farmers and ranchers with a carbon tax:

Marit told us how the carbon tax went up by 23% on April 1st. There's more.

Dave Marit: "They want to see a 30% reduction in fertilizer emissions, which would have a devastating impact here in the province of Saskatchewan. We've been trying to tell the federal government there's ways we can achieve emission reduction with technology and innovation. And western Canadian farmers and even probably Montana and Western Midwestern state farmers are some of the best in the world at adapting new technology and innovation when we look at zero till minimum till, crop rotation, and things like that that are happening. And we are world leaders there, and we've proven it, and yet we have a federal government that won't recognize it."

How big is agriculture in Saskatchewan?

Dave Marit: "It's huge. We just went over in our agribusiness exports out of the province of Saskatchewan, we just surpassed $20 billion dollars. So it is it's a big industry here, and of course the US is our number one trading partner."

Full audio of Friday's chat with Ag Minister Marit:

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