Evidence of meeting #38 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was call.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
Order. We're back in public session.
Mr. Boshcoff, could you please move your motion onto the floor, with the proper wording.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Ken Boshcoff Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
I'd like to move the following:
That the Prime Minister recognize and respect the work of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food and ensure that the work of the Committee will not be subverted and that the recommendations based on input from Canadian Stakeholders will be implemented and that the Prime Minister confirm his willingness to accept the work of the Committee.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
11:50 a.m.
NDP
Alex Atamanenko NDP British Columbia Southern Interior, BC
I will read the motion and give a couple of reasons for the motion.
I move the following:
That the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food make a recommendation to the government to move toward implementing measures to alleviate the competitive disadvantage facing Canadian agri-retailers and farmers as a result of the recently passed U.S. Farm Bill, wherein are provided tax credits and grants to enhance security upgrades at American agri-retail sites as required by Dept. of Homeland Security regulations.
This is a result of our contact with Mr. David MacKay of the Canadian Association of Agri-Retailers, who asked us to see whether we could have a motion. It's this whole idea once again of a level playing field. In this case it's not the producer; it's the retailer.
In the U.S. they're getting some help to implement security regulations, but here, according to the association, we're not. It's the idea that if we want these folks to be competitive and have our people continue buying from them, we should try to get them onto a level playing field.
The report they made to the Senate committee says that the retail sector is left to bear the entire burden of security regulations and that this will be a burden on the whole sector.
They're suggesting something similar to what is in the ports. The maritime security contribution program reimburses Canadian ports 75% of all eligible expenses incurred for security upgrades identical to those that would be required at agri-retail sites. Whether by direct rebate or tax credit, the government would have ultimate control over expense, eligibility, and limits.
They're saying that perhaps a tax credit system might be preferable and more affordable than a direct rebate program, but the idea is that there should be some kind of assistance if in fact they have to follow these security regulations. There should be some kind of assistance to our agri-retailers to do it, and that's the basic thrust of this motion.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank Mr. Atamanenko for the sincerity with which he brings this forward. He's been contacted by the group, as I'm sure we all have, to bring forward a motion, and Mr. Atamanenko did it. I think it's rather unfortunate that Mr. Easter, on the other hand, just ran out and issued a press release with almost the exact same wording.
I have a problem with this. There are two points. One is that if what we've heard from the agri-retailers is true, my concern isn't that we put our guys on the same playing field. My concern is that our guys should be at an advantage, because this is not a national security issue. What I think we as a committee should do is undertake to have the decision-makers for this and the reasons for this regulation being put in place brought in front of us, so that we can understand it and take a real position on whether we should even be having these regulations put in place.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
Thank you.
I'll first start off by commenting on the press release.
Brian, the fact of the matter is that I raised the question on this issue in the House to the minister. I don't know who answered that day, whether it was Mr. Lauzon or someone else. In any event, I didn't get any answer, and that was the reason for the press release. The fact of the matter is that on this issue—
What did you say?
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
Why would you issue a press release and not bring it to the committee?
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
Listen, I have a right to issue a press release any time I want to, guys. The fact of the matter is that the question was raised in the House, the agri-retailers met with us, and it is a serious issue.
I support this resolution, Alex. The problem here is that Canadian agri-retailers are being put at an extreme disadvantage, which is going to impact on primary producers as well, because they will pass that cost on.
The Canadian agri-retailers association has basically said they expect the cost of this added security will be about $75,000 for a small operation on the prairies. They have to put the security fence around. They first were supposed to put lighting around, but I think that's been withdrawn as a requirement.
In any event, they figure the cost will be about $75,000. It is being demanded by the Government of Canada. It's not a cost that should come out of agriculture; it really should have come out of the security measures, which billions of dollars have been put in place for.
Last week or the week before, the United States Farm Bill was passed, and they overrode the veto of President Bush. In that Farm Bill, for these similar security measures, it's $100,000 per unit, up to a maximum of $2 million for multiple units. That is being covered by the U.S. Treasury. In Canada there is no assistance.
Therefore, support for this bill...because if we're going to be in a level playing field, and security is the issue, then the Government of Canada--not out of its agriculture budget--should be assisting these industries.
That's where we're coming from.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
These are regulations that come forward from public safety, actually.
11:50 a.m.
NDP
Alex Atamanenko NDP British Columbia Southern Interior, BC
Brian, I think we're on the same page, and I agree with you; however, I think until we can stop that, until we can get those people here, it doesn't hurt to have this motion passed so that at least we underscore the difficulty that these people are facing.
So I would continue to ask that we pass this motion. At the same time, we can make a recommendation to call some of these other people and try to pick that apart. But that's going to take time. It may not happen before we get out in the summer. That's the problem here.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
That's fine, Mr. Atamanenko. I accept that explanation. So could you put an addition or amendment onto it saying that the committee requests to call forward...just as you were saying?
I mean, I understand that it takes time, but if you were to do that, I think we could support this, or at least I could. My problem is with these regulations in the first place. I think by agreeing to this, unless we have something else in there, we are agreeing with the regulations. And I can't agree with that until I see more details on it.
11:55 a.m.
NDP
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
I have a suggestion. I know that everybody just received their farm input study report yesterday, or the day before. Recommendation five actually does....
Oh, I can't read it aloud because we're in public.
At any rate, it does deal with this issue, since we did hear from CAAR on it. We might be able to, in that report, make a suggestion that we have further witnesses or testimony from industry and the regulators on the specific issue. So we could either do it in this resolution or on a recommendation in the report.
Mr. Miller.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
Larry Miller Conservative Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON
Alex, it seems we're very close on this. In the interest of time--I myself have to be out of here by 12 o'clock--maybe we could deal with this and transcribe an amendment to this that's suitable over the weekend and deal with it first thing at Tuesday's meeting.
Would that be acceptable?
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Alex Atamanenko NDP British Columbia Southern Interior, BC
Well, it shouldn't take too long to do that.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Alex Atamanenko NDP British Columbia Southern Interior, BC
Brian brought this up: what's the amendment?
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
What are you suggesting, Mr. Storseth? Then we can move along here.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
We've heard from the agri-retailers on this. So we should call in the officials to explain their....