Paul Connors
- Career
- Executive director for the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Agriculture for fourteen years; executive assistant to Ken McDonald
- Political Experience
- Elected Member of Parliament for Avalon in the 2025 Canadian federal election
Where Paul falls on key policy spectrums
Your Money
People & Society
How We're Governed
Land & Community
Total votes cast: 47,030
Mr. Speaker, Newfoundland and Labrador is strategically located to bolster Canada's defence strategy. Our new government is committed to spending 2% of GDP on defence this year and 5% by 2035. My question is very simple: Will Newfoundland and Labrador have an opportunity to play a role in the defence strategy?
Thank you. In Newfoundland, I think it's the Newfoundland and Labrador government that actually designs and does that.
Thank you very much for that.
Do you have anything to add, Mark?
Were you ever consulted on or asked about the research technique and what you should be doing? You mentioned so many nets, hooks and lines. Were you ever asked for input on that?
In 2024, the audit reported that the program's administration “was found to be efficient in only a few provinces”—I'm not so sure it was efficient in Newfoundland and Labrador—and recommended that the department “identify and address Program inefficiencies by facilitating collaboration between provinces to share promising design and delivery practices.” Has that been addressed in the various [more]
Another issue in our province would be under AgriStability and the whole-of-farm reference margins. Most of our farms are smaller farms and multicrop farms. If they have a good year in one crop, but it's offset by a bad year in another crop, AgriStability won't be used. Is there any thought to how we could address that for the smaller farms and multicrop farms?
Mr. Robert, they're not asking the people participating in the fishery for advice on research. Is that a standard practice? Are they just told where to go to do the samples?
You mentioned that some of these farms have off-farm income. That's usually because they need that to subsidize their farming income to survive. If they had the proper programs, they wouldn't have to have off-farm income. Thank you very much.
Lucas, have you never been asked where to go to do the sampling?
Good day. My first question is for either Mark or Lucas. Both of you can answer it. We all know the negative impact if we fish in the critical zone and what that would cause. What would be the negative impacts if we do not fish the quota of mackerel that needs to be fished? Would there be any negative impacts?
Last year in Newfoundland and Labrador, we had a drought and it was significant. It impacted almost all commodities in our province. It was caused by climate change, of course. What action, if any, has the department taken to ensure that AgriRecovery can meet the increased demand for disasters caused by climate change?