The Liberals continue their bizarre focus on growing vegetables in the North instead of doing the really easy thing of killing the carbon tax that is making food so expensive in Canada’s northern communities. They really want to figure out how to grow carrots where carrots don’t grow, to the tune of half a million dollars just in studies and research.

Look at this, from Blacklock's Reporter:

The Canadian Space Agency is spending $450,000 to show Nunavut residents how to grow carrots in the Arctic. The Agency justified the spending as research on future food production in outer space.

“The facility will be used to demonstrate plant production operations in a harsh environment and provide research opportunities while testing technology and operational procedures that may one day help astronauts grow food off Earth,” the Agency wrote in a notice. It budgeted $450,000 to train local residents to run a greenhouse called the Nuarvik Food Production facility in Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, a hamlet 250 kilometres above the Arctic Circle.

But while the Liberals are using the excuse of wanting to know how to grow vegetables in outer space as the reason to fund this research, that’s not entirely true. I remember reading another article in Blacklock's earlier this year about the Liberals really wanting to grow carrots North of 60, no matter the cost.

And don’t get me wrong, I am definitely not against crop science, but of all the vegetables to focus on, the Libs are worried about one that is — besides potatoes — probably the most resilient to transportation.

I completely acknowledge food insecurity is a problem in remote communities. But throwing good money after bad over and over again is no remedy. I have an immediate solution to the challenges of getting affordable fresh food to the North and it starts by listening to Northerners about how the Liberals are hurting them.

Look at what Nunavut Premier Joe Savitkataaq had to say about the federal carbon tax in this article from CBC:

"It compounds the cost of everything in the North," where residents already face the highest cost of living in the country, Savikataaq said after meeting Thursday with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa.

"When the carbon tax is imposed in Nunavut it puts the price of fuel up and the price of heating fuel and gasoline up," he explained.

"But it also puts the price up for all the freight that comes up, all the food that comes up."

The North needs fossil fuels the most for everything. Liberals made fossil fuels more expensive with a carbon tax and it factors into every aspect of Northern life. It’s time to axe that tax.