Agriculture Committee on Oct. 27th, 2009

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Just on a personal basis, I would be interested if you sent that to my office, and you should do the same with your own MP. But I just want to make sure that happened after the new rule and not before it, because that's an important point.

Mr. Allen, go ahead for seven minutes, please.

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to all of you for being here.

It's fascinating to see the thread tying together the story of the farms, especially the family farms, in this country, all of which do not seem to be doing well, if I can use that term.

I hear what you're saying, Ms. Simmons, when it comes to P.E.I. potatoes in Ontario.

I also know, Mr. Norton, what's happened to cherry farmers in southern Ontario, on the Niagara peninsula, where I come from. They're pulling them out there; they don't keep them. They're not even going to bother staying in the business any more. There are some very large producers who have been in the business of cherry farming for as long as I can remember, from the time I was a kid growing up in that neck of the woods. They're out of business, as well as the clingstone peach growers, who lost CanGro.

I was in a grocery store not long ago, probably a couple of weeks ago--though I don't go to it too often, but I happened to be there at that particular time--and there was a can of peaches. “Product of CanGro”, it said, the producer in St. David's that used to take those peaches. The peaches were in exactly the same container the manager had shown me as one of their pièces de resistance. “This is our new marketing tool,” he said. Yet you flip it around, and it says, “Product of China”. Every clingstone peach grower basically in the Niagara peninsula is out of business.

When you talk about the family farm and cherry producers in British Columbia, and when Ms. Simmons was talking about family farms in P.E.I. making potatoes, and we talk about buying local, the folks who I live close to, when they think of buying local, they think of buying local in season, in the sense that if tomatoes are grown in the peninsula, where they are; or fruits or vegetables are grown in the peninsula, where they are. They buy local. They're thinking basically about the market stand and that time of year. Then when they think of buying local after that fact, they're thinking about Canadian product.

In my area, at least, the folks are saying they don't want to buy P.E.I. or British Columbia produce. What they're saying is they want to buy from a local producer first, who might be up the street. In some cases, they are. It's not a very far drive in our neck of the woods, which some of you probably know.

From that perspective, why at this point, Mr. Norton, is the cherry industry in British Columbia coming to a head now? From what I've seen in the peninsula, they basically just said to heck with it. They simply pulled them out. I watched them pull out acre after acre after acre.

[Greg Norton]

I guess, Mr. Chairman, there are probably three major reasons why. There's the economics, obviously. There's been a dramatic overplanting of cherries in the Pacific Northwest of the States and in eastern Europe. Europe has been a very lucrative market for the export part of our industry. That industry has really grown. In agriculture, when there's somebody making money, everybody else overplants it. That's a fact of life.

It was a perfect storm, because they started planting about eight to ten years ago in the Pacific Northwest, and there's been severe frost the last two winters. Basically, those trees stayed in the ground and continued to grow, and their ability to bear more fruit increased. However, they didn't bear fruit because of the winter and spring frost. So all of a sudden we had all of this extra acreage hit, with a massive crop, as opposed to crops slowly coming onto market and people getting ready for them. We saw that.

And then, of course, the high dollar has had an absolutely huge effect on us. When I started exporting cherries, all of my profit was from the 35% exchange rate I had. We broke even on the actual dollars and then my wife and I lived on the 35% premium on the exchange rate. It was wonderful to take a $50,000 cheque to the bank and come back with $70,000 or $80,000. It was just like a big party, and it definitely was. So there was that.

The other thing I think we want from the food safety and “buy local” momentum going on right now is that little bit more of a premium we think Canadians are ready to pay for Canadian-raised and produced fruit.

The combination of all of those things makes us very anxious to continue to preserve this, and in fact to expand in Canada. So those are the reasons for the timing: it's a matter of buying local, the carbon credits, and the climate change momentum. If we can sell closer to home and make money that way, we think that's the way to go from a marketing perspective.

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

I certainly commend you and your fellow growers in British Columbia, because I know how our folks have been doing at home, where they have just faced.... Mind you, they're early harvesters, not late harvesters, of cherries in the peninsula. They don't have much choice based on our climate in the peninsula. So they didn't have that ability to be late harvesters, and maybe if they had, it may have preserved some of our crop.

I know you've indicated a number of things that you think all of us in government—and I use the term “government” loosely, in the sense of all of us—should be doing. I say that with great respect for my colleagues across the way, who are the government—but you've mentioned that term. I know you've articulated a couple of things that you think we ought to be doing to make sure that family farms across this country, regardless of the crops or livestock they are in, whatever they happen to be, somehow manage to survive with our help. I'm just wondering if you've left any out or have some additions to make to that list. Feel free, sir.

[Greg Norton]

Thank you for that wonderful opening. I thought I was talking too fast before, but apparently I wasn't.

Thank you for that, and Mr. Chairman, if I may, there certainly are additional things we could do. I did mention briefly that there's an opportunity for the Canadian government to do some advertising and promoting of Canadian farm products—not just cherries. I think that would be wonderful.

We also need help in developing offshore markets. There are a few opportunities left in the world: China, Japan, Brazil. We're already working with Stockwell Day. We've met with him about trying to get into China. But you know, at any opportunity, any member of government can fit Canadian food products into the beginnings of the other trade agreements that are going on—we'd certainly like you to slide cherries in there right at the top—and things like that.

Also, there's the recent movement in British Columbia toward a combined HST tax. We've been working on that forever, and we think it's a really positive thing and that the farmers are ultimately going to benefit from it.

There are also things like the environmental farm plan, under the Growing Forward framework. It's an excellent, excellent entry level program into food safety and environmental stewardship programs, which give us an opportunity to tell our Canadian consumers that we're growing with a conscience and we're aware of the impacts on the environment.

I guess that's it. Thank you very much for that, sir.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Your time has expired, Mr. Allen.

Mr. Storseth, for seven minutes, please.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I will let you know at the beginning that I will be sharing some of my time with Mr. Richards.

I'd like to thank the witnesses for coming today. They had very captivating presentations. I think it's very important that we have people such as you, from the different regions, coming and talking to us about some of these issues.

Ms. Simmons, I found your presentation particularly interesting. You said that you've had over 11 inches of rain since when?

[Brenda Simmons]

In the month of October.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

In the month of October alone. Wow. The potato fields must be just....

[Brenda Simmons]

It's bad. Last year was bad too, and we thought, well, we're past that, but this year it just started in October and hasn't really stopped. Normally the guys need to be done by October 31, when we get into real heavy frost, and they're just.... Every time it dries out, it rains two days later and you're back at it again for another two days.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

How's the frost been?

[Brenda Simmons]

We had one bad frost, and last night I guess they had another frost. They can handle a bit of this, but it's a major concern.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

Time is of the essence.

I appreciate the submissions. I've been on the committee for just about two years now, and I've not heard any of these issues with P.E.I. potatoes coming forward, and I certainly don't hear of them in the House, so it's good to have you here talking about these issues.

You talked about—

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, I would advise the member to go and look at the record of the House. I know the game he's trying to play here. Potatoes have been brought up in several speeches. Don't give me that.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

Well, Mr. Chair, can I reply to that point of order? Actually, there have been over 160 questions by the Liberal Party of Canada since this summer. The member from Malpeque has only asked two questions on agriculture, and both of them pertained to western Canadian issues. Neither one of them pertained to potato issues.

[An hon. member]

That's shameful.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

I don't want to get into that; I'd rather talk to the witnesses who are actually representing the region.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Let's address the witnesses.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

Sorry about that.

One of the other things you brought up was the “buy local” issue, and the “Product of Canada” issue is something that one obviously thinks about on hearing about buying local. I'd like to get your response to the “Product of Canada” regulations and the changes that were made to them.

I'd also like to hear a little bit more about some of the.... I have to be honest with you that Minister Shea was the first person to bring to my attention the fact that P.E.I. obviously has a different situation than a lot of places, particularly in Ontario, when you talk about buying local. I say this because you're naturally prone to export and you want access into some of these markets.

If you could just expand a little bit more on those issues, then I'll have some more questions for you.

[Brenda Simmons]

Thank you very much.

The change in “Product of Canada” labelling really didn't affect us in any way that I'm aware of. As I say, on the fresh side, it's all labelled “Product of Canada” anyway, and on the process side, you're really just dealing with potatoes and vegetable oils, and they are all Canadian in nature. So I'm not aware of anything there.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

So was it a positive, then?

I ask because what's been done is to take the old “Product of Canada” label, which was okay as long as 50% of the product was made over here, and now it's been made a gold standard of sorts. Do you see an advantage for P.E.I. potatoes from that gold standard being there? Is there an advantage from that when you're selling into Canadian markets and the other markets you sell into?

[Brenda Simmons]

I'd really have to do a little more research on that, because I deal mostly on the fresh side. We do have processors and so on, but they do their own marketing. We help with marketing on the fresh side, but what they're doing and whether they're able to capitalize on that, I don't really know.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

But just give me your gut instinct on it.

[Brenda Simmons]

It wouldn't hurt us. I know there are some products, like “Europe's Best”, that come in with potatoes from Europe in them. I don't know how those companies are dealing with that, but it's a very small part. We're really dealing with Canadian and U.S. products on the potato side.

It definitely should help. I've been around the Canadian Horticultural Council meetings for years and I know it's a major issue for other horticultural crops.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

Excellent. I appreciate that.

Mr. Norton, you were talking about, as Mr. Easter said, some very real issues that we obviously need to deal with. Would you be able to table with the committee some of the information you talked about, so we can actually see it for ourselves and how egregious some of these things on the ground truly are?