Evidence of meeting #23 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was market.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Alex Atamanenko NDP British Columbia Southern Interior, BC
Thanks to all of you for being here.
I have just a quick question, Mr. Harry, as a follow-up. As a point of clarification, is there any GMO soya consumed in the human food chain and in our country?
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Alex Atamanenko NDP British Columbia Southern Interior, BC
Most of it in GMO? So it's not just for animal feed or—
5:20 p.m.
Chair, Canadian Soybean Exporters' Association
No, no. It depends on the country.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
5:20 p.m.
Chair, Canadian Soybean Exporters' Association
Europe is non-GMO. Japan is non-GMO. The Asian fringe countries just buy basic commodities cheaply around the world market, so coming out of the U.S. or Brazil it would probably be GMOs.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Alex Atamanenko NDP British Columbia Southern Interior, BC
So here, if we buy soya, it could be GMO or it could not be.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Alex Atamanenko NDP British Columbia Southern Interior, BC
Thank you.
Mr. Lemaire, I'd like to pursue a little bit the vegetable and fruit industry.
I've said this many times before and I'd like to get your point of view on it. I think it's no secret that before we started signing on to free trade agreements, the FTA with the U.S., and then NAFTA, we had significantly more producers of vegetables and fruits in Canada. We had something called “in season tariffs” at that time that protected our vegetable and fruit producers.
I've talked to producers when I've been with the committee or on my cross-Canada tour that I did as part of my study, and it's very difficult for our folks to survive in this market. There's constant innovation, and people are developing strengths in trying to compete.
Is there any talk in your industry of having a floor price, for example? We know that often apple producers are hit because we get apples that are below the cost of production being dumped into Canada. One of the biggest broccoli producers in Ontario says he makes money when there's a drought in the States.
Has there been any talk about having a floor price, to have a level so at least our folks can compete without worrying about being undercut?
5:25 p.m.
President, Canadian Produce Marketing Association
There has been discussion amongst various groups. I know the Ontario apple marketers, in approximately 1999-2000, were trying to determine and understand the actual market price so that as a group they weren't going into the market below price amongst each other.
The management and development of that system alone was very difficult, with misinformation sometimes being fed into the system around pricing and/or volumes. That's just an example on the apple side relative to the vegetable side, and you can take any of the various groups. The complexity of creating that floor price would be extremely challenging.
Is there an uptake to looking at how you could create that? Potentially there is, but the time investment to create it could maybe be misused. There may be other ways to achieve a competitive market, as opposed to spending a lot of time, money, and effort on that specific issue.
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Alex Atamanenko NDP British Columbia Southern Interior, BC
Thank you.
Do I have a few minutes, Mr. Chair?
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Alex Atamanenko NDP British Columbia Southern Interior, BC
Would my colleagues like to ask a question?
If my colleague would like to ask a question, I will give her the floor.
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Francine Raynault NDP Joliette, QC
Thank you.
Mr. Lemaire, in your document, you have said that the government must facilitate and create an environment to fully achieve a connection between health and agriculture policy for Canada. Could you give us some details and examples, please?
5:25 p.m.
President, Canadian Produce Marketing Association
Specific to a combination of agricultural policy that links health and agriculture, at this point there has been work to try to bring together Health Canada and Agriculture to try to frame discussion around how we develop policy that can support industry. The single-nutrient database would be one significant piece around that.
Have we seen any other policy models? I'm not aware of any.
This is why it's important that we start looking at how we intersect the various government departments' policy, as well as industry. It's not only a public discussion; it's a private discussion as well on how we bring the two together and work across intersecting sectors that are basically working on a common ground. We talked about transportation as examples.
When we look at the health community, in British Columbia, agriculture in the classroom is an example. You not only have agriculture, but you have education and health linking together to deliver a sound program to increase knowledge and consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables with children.
I think these types of policy development models could be very successful on a national level as well.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Actually, I'll split my time with Mr. Payne. I understand that Mr. Payne has to leave, so I'll let him go first and then I'll continue.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
LaVar Payne Conservative Medicine Hat, AB
Thank you, Chair.
I want to make a comment first. I know there's a new law striking down some issues with transporting wine across the borders, and I just want to say that I've found a really nice Ontario wine that I am transporting to Alberta. Anyway, it's a very nice wine.
