Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's indeed a pleasure to be here this afternoon. Happy St. Patrick's Day to everybody, and thank you for your kind invitation to allow me to be here and to dialogue with you today.
Mr. Chair, congratulations on being re-elected. I understand you won by a landslide.
It's been a busy year since we last met. As you know, we've been getting a lot done for farmers in the agricultural industry overall. Like you, I'm proud of the gains we have made in opening and growing markets and building Canada's global reputation for producing safe, high-quality food. We've had great success in opening and re-invigorating opportunities for our sector at home and around the world.
Last month I was pleased to join our industry colleagues in Vancouver to kick off the Olympic Games with a great Canadian breakfast cooked up by five top Canadian chefs, led, of course, by our first lady of food Anita Stewart. As I said, with all of the international media there, Canadian food is the best in the world, and that's why we've been on the road marketing our great agricultural products with some success.
I'm happy to report that we have the Market Access Secretariat kicked into high gear. When challenges arise, Fred Gorrell has his team on the ground, and they're doing great work. The secretariat is coordinating our international efforts to put everyone on the same page: the department, CFIA, International Trade, the provinces and territories, and of course industry, to identify their priorities and seize every opportunity to sell our products.
As you may have heard, the Market Access Secretariat has been very well received by producers and processors across Canada. Ian Wishart, president of the Keystone Agricultural Producers of Manitoba, recently stated that “the new Market Secretariat has been showing very positive results”. I'm proud to work side by side with my colleagues in industry to get the job done for them.
We've restored beef access to the Middle East, Hong Kong, Russia, and South America, estimated to be worth more than $70 million to our cattle producers, according to the latest numbers by the Canadian Beef Export Federation. We've restored access for sheep and goat breeding stock to Russia, the estimated value of which is $8 million. We have confirmed that China's state buying enterprise intends to increase their imports of Canadian canola oil by another $180 million this year. We reached an agreement to protect our half-billion dollar pulse business with India. But there's always more work to be done. My team and I won't rest as long as there's another trade barrier to be kicked down or opportunity to be captured.
Of course, our aggressive trade negotiations agenda complements all of this work. At the WTO, Canada continues to press for progress and for an outcome that would create a more level international playing field and new market opportunities for Canadian agriculture. We're also standing up for our supply-managed sectors. The government is also pursuing an aggressive regional and bilateral trade negotiation agenda.
We're also creating opportunities within Canada through the newly signed agreement on internal trade. That agreement is a tremendous positive force for Canadian producers and continues to safeguard our supply-managed systems.
In that regard, we are working towards a comprehensive economic and trade agreement with the European Union. The EU is Canada's second-most important partner for trade and investment, with two-way agrifood trade totalling over $6 billion last fiscal year. We want to make that relationship even stronger and more profitable, to the benefit of our producers and processors.
We have also made important progress in many other areas. We have implemented free trade agreements with the European Free Trade Association and Peru. We have signed FTAs with Colombia and Jordan and concluded an FTA with Panama. Our government will certainly be pressing Parliament to move forward on ratifying these free trade agreements as soon as possible. I know the Colombia one was reintroduced last Friday, and we look for early passage of it. I know all sides will work together, because farmers and the Wheat Board are pushing for that market access.
We're also looking ahead to exploring new possibilities with trading partners including Morocco, India, and Ukraine. We're continuing that work to build a strong foundation of memorandums of understanding with a growing number of countries.
At the same time, our government continues to support supply management at home and on the international stage. As I said to the Dairy Farmers of Canada at their annual meeting in January, our record on supply management speaks for itself. This government has taken action under article 28 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to limit imports of milk protein concentrates. We have harmonized compositional cheese standards to bring greater certainty to processors and Canadian consumers. Canadians know that cheese must be made out of milk, and we've made sure that Canadian families know what kind of cheese they get when they go to their grocery stores.
This government is also working to ensure that the WTO's special agriculture safeguards are available, if needed, in the future.
Finally, this government will always defend interests that are important to supply-managed industries in international trade negotiations.
As I've said many times before, when it comes to agriculture, the bedrock principle for this government is “farmers first”. Canada's economic action plan continues to build a firm foundation that will make sure agriculture comes out of the global downturn stronger than ever. Our plan is supporting agriculture as a core economic driver in this country. The Canadian Agricultural Loans Act is making government-backed loans available to producers such as new farmers, who previously didn't qualify. CALA is helping producers beat the credit crunch by guaranteeing an estimated $1 billion in loans over the next five years. It's already a success, by almost doubling the amount of loans compared with last year, for a total so far of $90 million.
More great news is that more than 118 of these loans have been registered to farmers who are just starting out. The goal is to help empower our young farmers to get a foothold in the business of agriculture and become self-sufficient farm business people.
We built flexibility into our agricultural programs, and in our economic action plan we delivered on our campaign promise to implement an agricultural flexibility program. Canada is a big country, and as we all know, every region has unique challenges and opportunities that diversify and create both challenges and opportunities. We're investing this $500 million from the plan into targeted, focused investments that will serve the industry extremely well.
Farm programs come and go, but the stability built around innovation in the marketplace is what will keep farmers and the farm community strong into the future. AgriFlexibility continues to deliver for our producers through funding for branding Canadian products worldwide, livestock traceability, canola marketing, and many other strategic investments that help drive agriculture forward. AgriFlexibility is building on the foundation of business risk management programs to create new opportunities and drive new efficiencies that will strengthen the farm gate for the long term. AgriFlexibility must remain proactive, but we also must have a set of programs to help producers react to income pressures.
We have listened to industry's concerns about how this suite is delivering for producers. Let me point out just how that suite has delivered. Since it was launched, for the 2008 program year, producers across Canada have benefited from over $4.5 billion in federal-provincial assistance through the business risk management suite of programs, including the one-time federal kick-start contribution of $600 million.
At the same time, this government is constantly working with our provincial and territorial partners to make sure these programs continue to respond to producers' changing needs. That is why at our recent meeting ministers committed to engage with producers and agricultural groups on the challenges facing the sector, business risk management programs, and the opportunities that lie ahead.
This business risk management strategic review is two-fold. We are mapping the way forward for the next-generation agricultural framework and constantly making tweaks to current programs to make sure they deliver to the farm gate.
One sector that has been particularly hard hit is pork. Our government is there for our pork producers in their time of need. For 2008 and 2009, livestock producers, including pork producers, are projected to receive more than $1 billion through AgriStability and AgriInvest. We've been getting AgriStability benefits out as quickly as possible through such new mechanisms as targeted advances and interim payments.
That help is flowing to producers without the overwhelmingly high overpayment rate that producers had to suffer through with CAIS. As well, the federal advance payment program alone has delivered over $344 million to our pork producers since 2007. Last year we sat down with the national pork leadership and developed a way forward to help producers restructure their operations for the future through long-term government-backed loans, transitional assistance, and international marketing support. We continue to work closely with Canada Pork International to expand and open new markets on the world stage.
In December, Canada Pork International joined the Prime Minister and me in Hong Kong, South Korea, and China, where we were able to announce the lifting of China's H1N1 restrictions on Canadian pork.
A few weeks ago I was proud to announce that Canada has secured the first certification agreement to allow pork products to China, which means that Canadian pork products will be back in Chinese grocery stores very soon. That is a $45 billion market back online for our pork producers. Edouard Asnong, president of Canada Pork International, praised our efforts, saying that the “continuous efforts from the federal government will increase opportunities for Canadian pork exports.”
We are also focusing on other key markets in Asia, including Indonesia. That work is paying off, as we see pork prices rising, and projections on the futures markets are well above the five-year average. We will continue to work with the leadership to chart the best way forward for Canada's pork industry.
While helping farmers weather immediate pressures, we are also helping them position their businesses for a profitable future. Innovation has always been a hallmark of agriculture, but never more so than today. Our government is helping farmers compete through investments such as the $8.7 million dairy research cluster we announced in January.
Science and innovation are at the heart of what matters to Canadians--the safety of their food, their health and wellness, and a clean environment. Agriculture, probably more than any sector of the economy, is under constant pressure from shifting social, economic, and natural forces. Our government is playing a strong role to help the sector seize opportunities and face down these challenges.
We continue to invest in science so that our farmers can compete and keep growing our Canadian economy. Our approach is to create partnerships between governments, universities, and industry researchers to focus investments where they can have the biggest impact at the farm gate.
Scientists at our 19 centres across the country are working with our partners in industry, through federally funded research clusters, to help our producers compete through innovations in disease, pest resistance, and nutritional values.
I've spoken a lot about what we've done, which leads me to mapping out the way forward. This government is committed to supporting agriculture in the future.
The main estimates you have before you reflect that commitment, with a $340-million, or 13%, increase for 2010-11. I want to repeat, agricultural investments by this government are going up by 13%.
The Speech from the Throne underscored this government's strong commitment to agriculture. The speech highlighted our work for Canadian producers, including our unwavering commitment to give western Canadian farmers the freedom to choose how they market their grain, our support for supply management, and our action for Canada's livestock sector.
Budget 2010 introduced two critical measures to backstop our livestock producers. We will dedicate $75 million to ensure that Canadian cattle producers continue to have access to competitive cattle processing operations here in Canada. The Canadian Cattlemen's Association has expressed its strong support for the measures we've presented in this budget.
Producers and processors all understand that the industry can only succeed if every link in the value chain remains strong. Jacques Laforge, president of the Dairy Farmers of Canada, welcomed our commitment to beef and dairy producers by saying,
The Government of Canada has really stepped up to the plate.
The Canadian Cattlemen's Association issued a similar statement:
The Canadian Cattlemen's Association (CCA) strongly supports measures contained in the 2010 Federal Budget aimed at ensuring producers have access to competitive cattle processing operations in Canada.
As the minister responsible for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, I am pleased to report that the March 2010 Speech from the Throne restated the government's intention to reintroduce legislation to protect Canadians from unsafe food and consumer products.
Immediately following the Weatherill report on the listeriosis outbreak, this government committed to move forward on all 57 recommendations of that report. Many of these commitments have been met and are well under way. To support that effort, the government announced an investment of $75 million to enhance the food safety system in September 2009. We're hiring and training more food inspectors and putting them to work on the front lines as we speak.
I'm proud of our government's track record of listening to farmers' needs and delivering on them. I'm also very appreciative of the hard work that goes on around this committee table.
I know you have a full agenda, but I would urge you to devote some time to private member's motion M-460, brought forward by our colleague, the member for Lambton—Kent—Middlesex. The motion, as you know, aims to speed up farmers' access to new farm inputs by having countries share their science, basically so we're not reinventing the wheel every time. I urge this committee to study this issue in depth so that we can help our farmers get new technology in a more timely fashion and compete on a level playing field.
Time and time again, Canadian farmers have proven that we can succeed with hard work and good ideas.
Thanks again for the opportunity to speak with you today. I look forward to your questions.