Provencher Member of Parliament Ted Falk has had yet another change in his committee responsibilities in Ottawa. Falk returned to the nation's capital at the start of the week expecting to be on the Agriculture Committee.

Ted Falk"I had been asked earlier whether I'd be willing to sit on the Standing Committee for Agri-Foods and Agriculture which I was really looking forward to. By the time I got to Ottawa, the leadership decided that they could better use me on Natural Resources. That's the committee that I've been assigned to for now. I have already been serving on that committee. We've had several meetings this week already.

Falk adds one of those meetings involved the head of Manitoba Hydro. He says he used the opportunity to encourage Hydro that, when developing any future transmission lines, it stay away from running those lines across pristine agricultural land as happened with the Bipole 3 line.

The Natural Resources Committee also handles issues related to oil and gas and lumber.

Meanwhile, Falk says the first week back in the House of Commons was dominated by discussion of the government's plan to change the tax system for farmers and small business people. He notes the Liberals are so far resisting any changes to the plan, something that surprises him.

"I'm actually quite surprised because, even within their own caucus, the Liberals are experiencing lots of division on this issue. In Atlantic Canada, there have been half a dozen MP's who have come out very strongly saying that they will not support this legislation because it very negatively impacts their farmers, their small business and their fishers. And, I think that's the experience they're having throughout their caucus, that people are really pushing back on this tax. It's an aggressive tax attack on small business and we know that small businesses are the job creators in our country."