The Alberta Party is campaigning to boost the agriculture sector by creating 6,000 new jobs.

In the Party's Agriculture Industry Plan, they highlight annual funding of $100-million for research and industry-led projects through a new Alberta Agriculture Innovation Fund.

Livingstone-Macleod Candidate, Tim Meech, says there's exponential growth opportunities for the ag sector.

"Especially here in Livingstone-Macleod where we are right on this great transportation corridor down to America and down into Mexico. Once we start to look at different ways to process what we grow here, and different ways to grow it, those jobs will come here and we'll have processing plants and different ways to do that here."

With the rise of technology use in agriculture, Meech says the party plans to get rural high-speed internet to every community in three years if elected.

"I personally would like to treat it as though it's an essential utility, just like we do with the electrical grid, just like we do with natural gas."

He says they party also wants to shift the carbon tax away from small businesses, farms, households, schools, non-profits and municipalities onto large emitters.

"The funding from that we can shift into other areas such as paying down the debt number one, and number two, different styles of energy like biodiesel that we can come up with and create."

In addition, Meech says they want to conduct more consultation with Alberta farmers to make a measured update to the farm safety legislation, Bill 6.

 

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