Agriculture Committee on Feb. 28th, 2013

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Perfect.

I am going to take advantage of the fact that CFIA representatives are here to ask a specific question.

I have a colleague in Sherbrooke who has found out that CFIA's chemical assessment division is soon going to cease operations. If you close that division, how will cleaning products get the necessary certification? Which programs could take the place of the work that the division was doing?

[Paul Mayers]

Thank you very much.

Perhaps there's a little confusion. The CFIA does not do the risk assessment related to new chemicals used, for example, in cleaning products in establishments. Our colleagues in Health Canada do those assessments.

Within CFIA we did undertake a program that did, if you will, the recognition—

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

I'm sorry to interrupt. Can I have a written response to that question—

[Paul Mayers]

Certainly.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

—because I don't have any more time.

I'm wondering, Minister, if you could please elaborate on innovation. I don't see many numbers. How much money will be spent on innovation?

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

We have in a federal-only program some $600 million on AgriInnovation, and then there are shared programs under the GF side.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Is that through AgriMarketing?

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

No. That's separate again. It's $600 million plus. I don't have the number right in front of me, but it's $600 and some million at the federal level only on AgriInnovation that we're putting forward. AgriMarketing is some $340 million, I believe.

So there are separate sets of money that are federal only. Then we have cost shared with the provinces and territories under those same pillars that would be regionally specific. What we do is the overarching umbrella on national scale, and then the provinces and territories also have the ability to build on those particular pillars regionally with 60% funding from the federal government.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Sorry, I have to stop you there.

I would suggest, Mr. Mayers, if you do provide a written response, you do it through the chair.

I'll invite Mr. Payne.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Minister, for coming and bringing your officials. It's important to look at the estimates.

I have a couple of things. Some of our colleagues have touched on innovation. Minister, recently I was in Lethbridge at the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers AGM, and we made an announcement of an investment of just about $600,000 for research and development in sugar beets. I know you're aware of that. I wonder if you have any other comments you'd like to make in terms of the innovation.

I think what we're doing in agriculture is really important. I'm sure you're in the same boat that I am, that if we can put the funds into research and innovation, and then take those to market.... I would like you to expand on that a little, if you would.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

As you know, there's tremendous return on any moneys that you spend on science and research, Mr. Payne. Every time we do that, there's a return of between $7 and $27 per dollar invested. [Inaudible--Editor]...special crop side, it's extremely viable.

We made some significant changes during Growing Forward 1 to do research based on the industry result that was required. Rather than just doing overarching research, which researchers love to do, we've now targeted, specifically with the help of industry, interoperability partnerships. We're partnering with industry, the provinces, academia and, of course, the federal government, and using the strategic investments we have on site and the great people we have. You get a lot more bang for your buck when you do that interoperability partnership. You will end up with results that industry is requiring. So if industry says it needs money spent on fusarium resistance, that's the target we go after. We don't look at specific varieties, but we look at how we map the genome in wheat and can make those changes.

Working in that partnership has turned into a much more effective use of taxpayers' dollars.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Thank you.

In terms of that investment, a couple of the products the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers are looking at are BioGlycol and Biobutanol. If that research is really positive, and from what I understand it is, that will mean huge opportunities for those farmers to have another outlet for their sugar beets.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

That's been the fly in the ointment in developing a national food strategy. We've had to go beyond food because now we're seeing derivatives, value-added coming out, as we expand our processing capacity. We're no longer just hewers of wood and drawers of water; we're developing a tremendous amount of almost pharmaceutical-grade products coming out of food-grade products, secondary systems. A tremendous amount of exciting things are happening. It's hard to keep up with them all. That's the role we now play, more the quarterback to dovetail and put together people who have developed this and that and were not talking to each other, but now they can, and we end up with another product coming out of it. It's just amazing to see this stuff grow.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

How much time do I have left?

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Two minutes.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Minister, the other thing I wanted to thank you for was your leadership on the XL file. That was extremely difficult. Brooks is in my riding—2,200 people—and from my point of view, we did absolutely the right thing to make sure that every piece of meat with any E. coli in it was recalled. I know that took a long time. From Canadians' perspective on food safety, I think we can't let that stuff happen. I think we did the right thing. It took some time, and I know there's still work to be done on that file. I don't know if you have any other comments you'd like to make, but I believe it's extremely important that Canadians know that food safety is a top priority for Agriculture Canada.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

The top priority for me as minister is to make sure that CFIA has the capacity to do its job, both from a budgetary and a manpower perspective. We've done that as a government. We've increased its budget by 20%. We have over 700 new people working at CFIA on inspection files and so on. We continue to build that capacity, and we won't stop.

XL was a very difficult exercise. These challenges always create opportunities. There are ongoing investigations, one by an independent panel and one internally at CFIA. There will be lessons learned. There will be things brought forward. As we learned with listeria, things will be brought forward that we will learn from again.

There's a much better collaborative approach between public health, both at the federal and provincial levels, and CFIA. We're making use of provincial labs and industrial labs to make sure that the turnaround time on samples is better. We've identified the gap, as Mr. Mayers was talking about, on the traceability side in-between the processor like XL and through to the multiplicity of people who reprocess that product.

What we're looking for is harmonization in the way they report and the paperwork that's required. You're putting together a road map and when every piece of paper almost contradicts the last one, it takes precious time to do that.

We're getting beyond that now with the capacity in Bill S-11 to have a harmonized, simplified set of forms that everyone will use so that when CFIA comes in, they'll be able to trace it out much faster than they did during that XL situation.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Thank you.

I have to go to Madame Raynault.

[Francine Raynault, NDP, Joliette, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for being here today, Mr. Minister.

A short line in the “Ministry Summary—Budgetary” has piqued my curiosity. It is on page 30 in the English version, and it reads “(S) Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency Revolving Fund”. What is that?

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

That's horse racing, basically.

[Francine Raynault, NDP, Joliette, QC]

Does this mean that the government spends money on that kind of betting?

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

No. There's a role for CFIA to play to make sure that the horses are handled humanely and properly, that the right medications are used, and that things that are, for lack of a better term I'll call, contraband aren't used.

[Francine Raynault, NDP, Joliette, QC]

Thank you.

My second question deals with community pastures. The decision to give up 900,000 hectares of community pastures belonging to provincial governments is making a number of farmers afraid that these precious areas will become inaccessible or fall into the hands of private companies. They have been standing idle for years. We have pasture of that kind in my constituency of Joliette. Hundreds of farmers have come together recently to protest against the decision. Are you considering overturning your decision?

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

I don't know of any federally managed pastures in your area, madam. These are predominantly in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, with a couple in Alberta, where the PFRA some 40 or 50 years ago took over the management of provincially owned land. We have never owned the land. This is provincially owned land. All we did was to provide management services. We put in infrastructure during the 1930s, when provinces were strapped, to make sure that these had fences, and water, and handling corrals, and so on, and continued in that vein until the last couple of years.

There's been a growing concern from the patrons of some of these pastures that they weren't as effectively used as they could be, that new and beginning farmers could not get through the old boys' club to get cattle into those pastures. The best way, in our estimate, was to turn the management back to the provinces, who now actually own more pastures than we do, which they've developed over the years and have the capacity to manage.

I've been assured by each of the provinces involved that the pastures will remain as pastures, under the same rules and regulations that were applied during the years they were under federal management.

[Francine Raynault, NDP, Joliette, QC]

The federal minister of agriculture and agri-food and his provincial counterparts made a commitment two years ago to develop a complete national traceability system for livestock. The 2011 commitment was made, then it was changed. Experts say that our traceability system is very much delayed and very little progress has been made on it.

Where exactly is the money going? What is your government's position on the matter?