From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The workforce reduction at a London, Ontario, facility that received $8.5 million in government funding appears to be a sign that Canadians do not have an appetite for bugs.

It appears Canadians’ taste for eating food made from bugs is not in high demand after news broke that a farm given millions by the federal government to raise crickets for “human and pet consumption” laid off two-thirds of its staff. 

The cricket farm in London, Ontario, run by the Aspire Food Group just broke ground on a new 150,000-square-foot facility last year. The company said it was cutting shifts and going from 150 workers to 50.  

In comments made to the trade news outlet AgFunderNews, company CEO David Rosenberg said the layoffs are due to making “improvements to its manufacturing system.”  

The fact the company is already cutting costs in dramatic fashion comes only a short time after Canada’s federal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau contributed $8.5 million to it in 2022.  

The cricket farm when fully operational can make 13 million kilograms of crickets for “human and pet consumption.” 

It was given widespread coverage several years ago by Canada’s state-funded CBC, which billed it as the “world’s largest cricket production facility.”  

Aspire’s pitch that its food had a lower environmental footprint than protein from cattle or pigs was in lockstep with the radical environmental goals of the Trudeau government as one of the reasons it landed a large grant.  

According to AgFunderNews, only a year ago Aspire claimed its factory would be working at 100 percent by the start of 2024.  

“We have significant contractual commitments for the majority of our production and expect 100% will be sold within the year,” former CEO Mohammed Ashour told AgFunderNews in March 2023. 

Groups such as the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) blasted the federal government for subsidizing companies that make food out of crickets for human consumption, saying it amounts to giving Canadians “their ‘let them eat crickets’ moment.” 

Both crickets and mealworms in recent years have been promoted by global elites as a source of protein that they say could replace beef or pork, and which can also be used in a variety of foods. 

Indeed, the Great Reset of Klaus Schwab and his World Economic Forum (WEF) has as part of its agenda the promotion of eating bugs to replace beef, pork, and other meats that they say have high “carbon” footprints. 

Conservative Party says layoffs at bug factory show ‘Canadians will not eat bugs’  

The Conservative Party of Canada in an email to members said that the news regarding Aspire cutting most of its staff is proof that Canadians “will not eat bugs.” 

“Justin Trudeau bet $9 million of your money on edible BUGS! He wants Canadians to own nothing, be happy, and eat crickets,” the party said in the email. 

“But his bet failed. The company he invested YOUR tax dollars in has dramatically cut production and fired two-thirds of their staff. Turns out, Canadians don’t want to eat bugs.” 

In 2022, Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis blasted the current cancel-culture crusade against red meat by pushing bugs as a source of food and the Trudeau government for funding bug factories.  

The Trudeau government has implemented many policies that align with the WEF’s so-called “climate change” agenda, including a punishing carbon tax, and attacks on the nation’s oil and gas industries. 

According to records, since 2018, a total of $420,023 has been spent on helping multiple food companies that make human bug food. 

At the same time, the Trudeau government has begun to attack Canadian farmers by pushing forth an agenda that would force them to reduce the amount of nitrogen-based fertilizer. This could have a large negative impact on the growing of feed for cattle as well as food for human consumption. 

Aspire is not the only factory in Canada breeding bugs to turn them into food for both human and animal consumption. The CTF listed all of the cricket processing companies that receive corporate welfare. 

Dr. Joseph Mercola, in a blog posted by LifeSiteNews, documented how Schwab’s Great Reset agenda looks to force the world’s population to, by pressuring local governments, make people “consider eating bugs and weeds and drink ‘reclaimed’ sewage.” 

From Canadians for Affordable Energy

Even if it fails to hit its emissions targets (which it will,) the economic consequences of enacting this plan are very serious. It would make Canada the only country in the world which willingly and purposefully stifles its single largest revenue stream. 

At this point, everyone in Canada has heard about the Carbon Tax and had a chance to experience its negative effects. But less has been said about another harmful policy dreamed up by the Trudeau government — the Emissions Cap on the oil and gas sector. Just like the Carbon Tax, the Emissions Cap is part of Trudeau’s larger program to try and achieve “Net Zero” greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050, which will have no positive impact on the environment, but which will be ruinous to Canada’s natural resource sector and to the national economy.

In their 2021 platform, the Liberals made a commitment to “cap and cut emissions from the oil and gas sector” and proclaimed that that industry must reduce emissions “at a pace and scale needed to achieve net-zero by 2050.” As promised, in December 2023 the Trudeau government proposed an Emissions Cap to reduce GHG emissions in the oil and gas sector by 42 percent by 2030. Keep in mind Canada contributes only 1.5% of global emissions, so this plan, even if accomplished, would reduce global emissions by less than one half of one percent.

Even if it fails to hit its emissions targets (which it will,) the economic consequences of enacting this plan are very serious. It would make Canada the only country in the world which willingly and purposefully stifles its single largest revenue stream. After all, the oil and gas industry generates $45 billion per year in annual economic activity, and contributes $170 billion per year to the GDP.

But don’t take my word for it. According to a Deloitte report commissioned by the Government of Alberta, an Emissions Cap would lead to a 10% decrease in Alberta’s oil production and a 16% decrease in conventional natural gas production. Fossil fuel production would decrease in B.C., Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland as well. Other industries connected to the oil and gas sector such as the mining, refinery products, and utilities are also expected to be impacted and will experience a decrease in output in Alberta and the rest of Canada.

The report goes on to state that in 2040 “Alberta’s GDP is estimated to be lower by 4.5% and Canada’s GDP by 1.0% compared to the baseline.”

It notes that because it is assumed that “the Cap is a permanent measure, the shift in the output of the oil and gas sector and associated losses are permanent and accumulate over time. Cumulatively, over the 2030 to 2040 period, we estimate that real GDP in Alberta is $191 billion lower and real GDP in the Rest of Canada is $91 billion lower, compared to the baseline scenario ($2017 dollars).”

Of course, the environmentalists will crow that the oil and gas industry is dying anyway and the demand for oil and gas around the world is slowly decreasing, but this is simply not true.

Global demand for oil and gas is only growing and will continue to do so. According to the report, “Based on current policy and before the impact of the Cap, we expect: Oil production in Canada to increase by 27% by 2030 and 32% by 2040 from 2021 levels; and Gas production in Canada to increase by 10% by 2030 and 16% by 2040 from 2021 levels.”

And this isn’t the only study which projects negative outcomes from this policy. The Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) released a study which describes how the Trudeau government’s proposed Emissions Cap for the energy sector would “cost the Canadian economy between $44.8 billion and $79.3 billion a year” and would “cause substantial losses, without achieving any net reduction in global emission.”

You can read the study here.

Plus it is worth noting that this emissions cap will result in “substantial losses without achieving any net reduction in global emissions.”

Why? Because of the increase in global demands for oil and gas, we can either produce those resources here or get them from another country that has no environmental, much less labour standards, such as Russia, Venezuela, and Iran.

To add insult to injury for the oil and gas producing provinces, and as I’ve pointed out in the past, this cap on emissions would apply only to the oil and gas sector. This emissions cap would not apply to the concrete industry, the automotive industry, or the mining industry. And — surprise surprise — it certainly won’t apply to Montreal’s lucrative jet-building industry.

But take heed: this isn’t simply an Alberta issue. This is a Canadian issue and one that everyone in Canada should be concerned about.

The umbrella of Net Zero by 2050 is large and far reaching, and an emissions cap is simply one part of a multi-layered attack on our economy and way of life. Carbon taxes, layered on top of a Clean Fuel Standard, layered on top of pipeline blockages, layered on top of Bills C-48 and C-69, preventing oil from being shipped from other parts of the world — will run counter to our national interests, and endanger the Canadian way of life for generations to come.

If Canadians are now vehemently opposed to carbon taxes, as we suggested would be the case half a dozen years ago, wait for this unnecessary burden to befall them.

In the words made famous by the Canadian rock legend BTO, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Dan McTeague is President of Canadians for Affordable Energy.