Edmonton, AB: While the NDP continues with expensive trade trips that produce limited results for Albertans, United Conservative MLA Prasad Panda continues his work communicating to international investors and policy makers what a pro-growth, free enterprise government in Alberta would look like.
“I found myself in India on an unplanned trip and made the effort to meet with senior Indian officials, diplomats, and business leaders to advocate for the reduction and elimination of tariffs on pulse crops and for our energy sector,” said Panda.
“As we saw with Bill 6, the NDP’s record for ignoring the voice of Alberta’s agriculture sector is well documented. Justin Trudeau’s trip to India didn’t help with the imposition of a 60 per cent tariff on chickpeas upon his return,” added UCP Agricultural Critic Rick Strankman.
“My colleagues in the United Conservative Caucus have met personally with the Consular General of India in Vancouver and discussed these very issues. Further to this, I also brought these issues up with Indian officials and leaders that I met with, including India’s Federal Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Reliance Group President and CEO PMS Prasad. I have even met with the Canadian High Commissioner in New Delhi and our Canadian Senior Trade Commissioners in Mumbai and Hyderabad.
“The NDP’s trade mission to India last month must have been planned for a while, and they could have identified the most influential federal and provincial stakeholders for our Minister to meet with to make the case for Alberta’s producers. The Memorandum of Understanding between the province of Meghalaya and Alberta is important and makes for a nice government news release, but only 3.5 million people live in Meghalaya while India’s population is 1.3 billion,” said Panda.