Jason Kenney says if the UCP is elected in the upcoming election, they will work to help farmers and ranchers in the province.

He was present on a farm west of Rimbey today to talk about their promise to Alberta’s farm families and repeal Bill 6.

“What we’re hearing from farmers is that we need to gain back their trust, the government needs to go back to the drawing board, and that’s exactly what we will do.”

He says the NDP has made farming and ranching difficult for families in the agriculture industry, “that is way damaging policies like Bill 6 need to be reversed.”

Kenney says policies that the government has put in place restrict the potential for the sector to grow and create new jobs.

“Right now our farmers and ranchers are going through trying times, made more difficult by NDP policies that have driven up costs and increased red tape.”

He says their plan is to create the Farm Freedom and Safety Act (FFSA), which will be passed into law in 2019. The act will not only allow the repeal of the Bill but as well as recognize that operating a farm is unlike operating a conventional business and that farmers and ranchers require much greater flexibility in meeting employment standard.

 “I have not yet met a single Alberta farmer who supports Bill 6 even with the changes that were made, and even the consultations that we’ve done after the fact.”

If elected, he says the UCP government the FFSA would be passed into law in 2019.

He says these laws would be comprised of information taken in during consultations with farmers and ranchers. Kenney adds, between the start of 2015 and the end of 2018, employment in Alberta’s agriculture sector fell by 19 per cent which was 11,300 jobs.