Federal election candidates face questions from NSAC students on environmental issues

BIBLE HILL - Only two of five local federal election candidates correctly answered students' environmental questions at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College Tuesday.
Cumberland Colchester Musquodoboit Valley candidates played a friendly game of Planetary Jeopardy at the college in front of about 50 people.
Independents Rick Simpson and Bill Casey, NDP Karen Olsson, Conservative Joel Bernard and Liberal Tracy Parsons faced 15 student-made questions about the environment, including topics on local agriculture, transportation, biofuels/renewables, global warming and economy vs. environment.
Parsons won the game with 700 points, followed by Bernard with 400. Casey, Olsson and Simpson did not have any points.
A question by the audience was posed to the candidates about the possibility of more tax breaks for farmers.
"Until they are making a profit, it doesn't help. We have to protect supply and management first," answered Casey.
"There needs to be funding for equipment that is fuel efficient or reduce the amount of fuel being used," added Parsons.
Increasing the amount of farmland in the province in the face of biofuel production was also discussed.
"We need to grow, produce and manufacture food locally," stressed Olsson.
"... we need to keep money here by producing here. We have to go back to family farms that thrive," said Bernard.
Simpson stressed growing hemp was the ideal solution.
"We can produce 500 gallons of ethanol per acre of hemp. Hemp seeds are one of the most nutritional foods on the Earth ... and it can put the little guy back on the land."
The event was hosted by the NSAC's Campus Sustainability Initiative, a student-led committee promoting the awareness of environmental issues.
"There's a serious lack of youth voters and students need to be exposed to political issues and candidates and be inspired to vote," said Nicole Lefebvre, a co-ordinator of the event.
Lefebvre said the event was informative for her.
"I came in with an idea of who to vote for but now I'm not sure. I was going to vote for an actual party but to see how candidates responded I'm looking at it again."

mchiasson@trurodaily.com