Agriculture Committee on Oct. 24th, 2006

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerry Ritz]

Thank you, gentlemen.

Monsieur Gourde.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Hello.

I am a farmer, like you. The politician’s life is new to me.

We have a tradition where I’m from. When someone goes through a tragedy, we go to see them. We have to know what you think about how things unfold afterward. We won’t spend more time talking about your disaster, I think we’ve talked enough about it already. However, we have to decide what to do in the short, medium and long-term.

Do you think it’s more important for us to immediately solve the short-term problem and that we set deadlines for medium and long-term solutions? Or should we resolve the whole situation at once? How would you like us to work with you?

[Philippe Gemme]

I will speak on behalf of the group. What is most important, is that people get paid tomorrow. The short-term is tomorrow, it isn’t in three months. With regard to the medium and long-term, we should form a committee with the people of Saint-Amable and the UPA, and agree on what kind of future the residents of Saint-Amable will have. But right now, we need money to cover our minimum expenses. It may seem unbelievable, but we have to put food on our table. That’s where we’re at. We need money to pay for our groceries. That’s the short-term situation.

[Clément Lalancette]

: I would like to add that the short-term, as we’ve already said, is today and yesterday. It’s an advance for a program. The medium-term is compensation for the 2006 harvest. With regard to the long-term, once announcements have been made to deal with this situation, the committee should go back to work and evaluate all of the possible impacts. We don’t know yet what will happen to the fields next year. That’s our long-term. Our long-term is the 2007 harvest.

To sum up, the short-term was yesterday, and an advance for the 2006 harvest. The medium-term is the 2006 harvest and measures to cover our losses, and the long-term is 2007 and beyond. Once the short-term objectives have been met, all of the impacts on production have to be evaluated. This is a first in the horticultural sector. Even if we asked the Agency what we needed to take into account for next year, they wouldn’t be able to give us an exact answer. These matters still need to be studied.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Does AMA-Terre speak on behalf of all producers, or will some producers prefer to proceed individually?

[Philippe Gemme]

AMA-Terre is made up of people affiliated with the UPA. Some black market producers aren’t included in the group, but we still represent over 96% of producers who live off of their farms, be they small, medium or large. We represent all businesses, whether they are nurseries or potato, strawberry or asparagus farms.

We are talking about the short and medium-term. Take my example. The company that bought my potatoes informed me that it wouldn’t buy them anymore if I continued to grow them in Saint-Amable. I have to move if I want to resign my contract for next year. I’m only talking about my situation, but there are others. This isn’t fiction, this is reality.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

We are talking about market shares that have taken years to acquire in Quebec and on the export market. Your producers undoubtedly want to continue to grow potatoes because they are equipped to do so.

Have you started to consider the possibility of growing in municipalities located outside of the region?

[Philippe Gemme]

There will have to be a serious reflexion with regard to government assistance. In my opinion, there will be tough choices to make this winter, specifically, who will continue and who will feel like continuing, given the restrictions. We can’t forget about the restrictions.

Let’s assume that government assistance is allocated in the medium-term at an estimated value of $7,000 an acre and the producer, considering that his land value is $2,000, decides to continue. The same producer could sell at $2,000 an acre, and the government could compensate him for loss of land value. The person who buys this land at a reasonable price, even with the restrictions, could grow certain products. These are medium and long-term possibilities that need to be considered. But don’t forget that producers who move to other regions won’t necessarily be welcomed with open arms and given land.

I experienced this myself. I recently told a producer that I came from Saint-Amable. His reaction, “Oh yeah, the nematodes”.

[Richard St-Aubin]

The restrictions imposed upon us are part of the problem that we are dealing with today. In the short-term, we need money, but in the medium and long-term, we need answers. The region’s producers have bought stock and seed. This problem affects all of the production lines.

What can we do to sustain the markets that we have to protect? It isn’t easy to meet with a major client and tell him that we don’t know what’s going on, that we can’t give him any answers and that we don’t even know whether we will be able to produce next year. This is the problem we are facing. If you come with me tomorrow to negotiate with these people, I’m not sure that you would talk to them about the nematodes in Saint-Amable. They would ask you what nematodes are and you would have to tell them that they can survive in the soil for 40 years. They would conclude that we would not be able to produce next year and they’d take their business elsewhere.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerry Ritz]

Mr. Chouinard.

[Pierre Chouinard]

: I would like to add that the 80% of the region’s fields are infested. I think it’s a pipe dream to believe that there will be potatoes in Saint-Amable next year. Even if nematodes weren’t found in 20% of the fields, that doesn’t mean they won’t be there next year. The Agency will be constantly with us over the next five, ten, fifteen years, to closely monitor what is happening in the region.

It must also be understood that if potatoes aren’t produced in this region, they’ll be produced elsewhere. Finding 3,000 acres of land suitable for growing potatoes isn’t impossible. It just takes time. I am just about certain that the producers will fight over any available land, if there is any. Whatever the case may be, they’ll never find what they lost in Saint-Amable.

One thing that we shouldn’t forget is that we signed an agreement with the United States to reopen the border. The border was reopened this morning. We should congratulate the Agency, who worked hard to get this done. Congratulations!

However, the importance of obtaining the sector’s compliance is very high. It is possible that someone notices that one group in the sector is being cast aside in order to keep the border open. There is a risk that this story could come back to haunt us. The Agency told us openly. Quebec has to comply with the agreement. We will do our part, on the condition that the producers affected by nematodes are properly compensated. The impact on their businesses must also be mitigated, to allow them to get through this crisis. If this condition is not met, compliance with this agreement… we have to ensure that the sector complies with the agreement, so that the US sees that the Agency has the situation well in hand.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerry Ritz]

Thank you, Mr. Chouinard.

I'm going to move on. Mr. Arthur.

[André Arthur, Independent, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Mr. Chouinard, please give us an idea of the budget required to meet your explicit and implicit demands, whether they are intended for the Government of Quebec or the Government of Canada, make by the people sitting at the end of the table in order to deal with the past, present and future damages described earlier.

[Pierre Chouinard]

To cover all of the inventory and harvest in the Saint-Amable region, we are talking about a sum ranging from four to six million dollars.

[André Arthur, Independent, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

You are speaking of inventory, but I asked you for the entire program. You spoke of your needs for next year, soil remediation and lost investments. What is the total for all of that? You mustn’t hide it from us. You have to tell us.

[Pierre Chouinard]

We haven’t studied that yet, Mr. Arthur.

[André Arthur, Independent, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

There is no limit, is there?

[Pierre Chouinard]

As the expression goes, the sky is the limit. In the very short-term, we think that we have to help producers and cover the 2006 harvest. That would require about four to six million dollars. With regard to the assessment of medium and long-term economic impacts, the impacts on the labour force, the loss of market share and the consequences due changes to processes would have to be determined. This has been estimated at several tens of millions of dollars, and that’s only for the potato producers. Imagine what it would be for all of the others affected. By opting to establish a regulated area in the region, the Minister must expect that there will be an economic impact, like there has been.

[André Arthur]

The Minister isn’t at fault, it’s the nematodes.

Of course.

[Philippe Gemme]

We are all businessmen here. I attended a working group meeting. We had a decision to make: open 95% of the Quebec border because we were losing millions of dollars a day. I was the good old’ boy in the room. I basically had to agree and say that it was a logical business decision. Only 5% would be left over. I would have liked for there to be an agreement in place before opening the border, because we all know how many millions of dollars are exported from Quebec to the US every day.

What difference can a day make for the government? It could have put in place a program to allocate $50,000 per farm the next day, and set up an emergency plan afterward. But that isn’t what happened: Saint-Amable was closed, we sacrificed it to the Americans and voilà!

What have we been told? Nothing to this point. But don’t forget that it was thanks to Saint-Amable that the rest of the Quebec border was reopened. It wasn’t thanks to the nematodes, we certainly never wanted any. All I know is that we have payments to make. The solution, is for us to be allocated money, and fast.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerry Ritz]

Mr. Atamanenko, final questioning.

[Alex Atamanenko, NDP, British Columbia Southern Interior, BC]

Thank you for coming. If I understand correctly, there hasn’t been any provincial or federal aid to this point. Is that right?

[Clément Lalancette]

That’s right, not to this point.

[Alex Atamanenko, NDP, British Columbia Southern Interior, BC]

In addition, there is no way to process the affected potatoes. Is that right?

[Clément Lalancette]

No. The potatoes can be processed, but the processor has to comply with a protocol put in place by the CFIA. The processor has to have a wastewater management plan, etc. If processors have the option to do business with other suppliers, that’s what they’ll do.