Evidence of meeting #84 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 animals.
A recording is available from Parliament.
May 30th, 2013 / 12:45 p.m.
Liberal
Frank Valeriote Liberal Guelph, ON
I'd like to thank you all for coming.
I would like to follow up, Tina, on the first question that Pierre asked. That was about research and the government's investment in research. I'll take a little different approach.
We all know that farmers are doing everything they possibly can to keep their animals safe and comfortable, and all the good reasons why. It's all to the benefit of the animals and the farmers, and we've heard that. I know they're doing a great job.
For them to do better, though, for them to keep up to standards, we need research, including research even in the codes of practices that they're expected...even though they're voluntary, they're expected to follow them.
I'm concerned about the close to 700 people—the scientists, the researchers, the biologists—who have been cut from government farms and farm stations and universities. By my estimation, and I'm guessing here, even at $50,000 a person, at 700 people, that comes to $35 million. And I'm sure it's more money than that.
I am deeply, deeply concerned that this will compromise and have a huge impact on animal science, animal health, animal husbandry, farmers, and food safety. Frankly, I'm concerned that a lot of these scientists will go south.
Can you be more specific in your response? Can you tell us about some of these people who have been cut, some people we've lost, some good people? Are there some higher-profile researchers out there who've been cut who we're now going to lose? And what will be the impact on the industry?
12:45 p.m.
Professor, Department of Animal and Poultry Science and Egg Farmers of Canada Research Chair in Poultry Welfare, University of Guelph, As an Individual
Yes, I can tell you that a couple of the researchers we're losing, at least from Agriculture Canada, are considered tops in their field. They're very well published, very well internationally recognized, and have contributed a significant amount to the development of the codes of practice, to the new process of the development of the codes of practice. And that, along with research technicians, will decrease the output.
We also have some up-and-coming young scientists, one in the area of poultry welfare, that we have.... That is one area in which we don't have a lot of scientists. That scientist was originally put in place through a research alignment agreement through the University of Guelph and the industry and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to build the capacity in this area, because in Canada we don't have a lot of capacity in it right now.
Because there are all of the feather boards.... I can tell you right now that on the scientists committees now, some of us are serving on multiple committees. I think it's difficult to find enough who have scientific capacity in all of those areas to serve.
So there are a lot of questions, and there will continue to be more questions. We've been building a great deal of momentum in this area, and I know that will affect, at least in the poultry welfare area, our research progress.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Frank Valeriote Liberal Guelph, ON
Would you say it's compromising and putting in jeopardy our research capacity?
12:50 p.m.
Professor, Department of Animal and Poultry Science and Egg Farmers of Canada Research Chair in Poultry Welfare, University of Guelph, As an Individual
Yes.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Frank Valeriote Liberal Guelph, ON
All right.
I have a question about antibiotics, if I can go on to another subject. They are a natural part of every veterinarian's care, yet an Ontario Medical Association report from March expressed concern that extra-label preventative and/or prophylactic use of antibiotics might have a significant impact on antibiotic resistance in humans and in the animals themselves.
Do you know of measures being adopted voluntarily or by mandate to measure, regulate, and bring us in line with many of our trading partners on this issue?
12:50 p.m.
Professor, Department of Animal and Poultry Science and Egg Farmers of Canada Research Chair in Poultry Welfare, University of Guelph, As an Individual
I'm actually not the best person to answer this question because I don't work in the area of food safety, human health, public health, and that area.
It would probably be best to.... If you ask me about the animals themselves, I could probably tell you what they want to do, but when it comes to the implications, perhaps someone else can take that question.
12:50 p.m.
Steve Leech National Program Manager, Food Safety and Animal Welfare, Chicken Farmers of Canada
Yes. Certainly from the Chicken Farmers of Canada's perspective, antimicrobial use and resistance is a big topic. It's in the media quite a bit, and it's certainly one of our top three critical priorities as an organization to deal with. It's one of the reasons that for just over a year now we've had an integrated industry approach to dealing with antimicrobial use, which involves the producers, hatcheries, veterinarians, farmers, and feed mills so that we're all going in the same direction. A large part of that is to work directly with the Canadian government on several initiatives they have going, both at Health Canada and within the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Within the Public Health Agency of Canada, we focus on surveillance of antimicrobial resistance, at the farm level, at the processing level, and at the retail level, so we're getting appropriate data coming in for analysis and policy making. Just as of this year, we've started an on-farm surveillance program that will monitor antimicrobial use and resistance right at the farm level. That brings us right in step and at the forefront internationally in terms of what's being done across the world.
Within Health Canada, we're certainly working cooperatively with them as they review drug labels, to make sure they are appropriate and that the growth promotion status is taken off those labels. We've been working with them on that as well.
There are quite a few initiatives within the industry to make sure we're on par internationally.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Wild Rose, AB
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I appreciate all of you being here today, and I certainly appreciate your testimony and your answers so far.
I have questions for both Mr. Dungate from the Chicken Farmers and Ms. Widowski, if there's some time.
I want to hear a little bit more, Mr. Dungate, about your animal care program. I know you talked about it a bit in your presentation. You indicated that about 80% of farmers are currently certified under that program and about 95% receive full audits. I think you mentioned that seven different provincial boards have now made the program mandatory.
You did give some information about it, but I wonder if there's a bit more you could tell us as a committee about that program and exactly how the implementation is going. You said that seven provinces have made it mandatory now, so that would obviously indicate a few provinces have not yet signed on. Tell us why that might be and what you're finding the differences are in the provinces where it's mandatory and where it's voluntary.
12:55 p.m.
Executive Director, Chicken Farmers of Canada
Thank you very much, Mr. Richards.
It really is a process for us. We started with the on-farm food safety program. In fact, our on-farm food safety program will be mandatory in 10 provinces as of two weeks from now. Nova Scotia was the last province to come on; they have changed their regulations.
I think that's the point. Our boards can't change the regulations themselves. They have to go through provincial legislatures to get regulations changed so as to be able to move the regulations over.
Some of them were able to move food safety and animal care at the same time, and that's why they have gone ahead of others. I would say that the animal care program was probably about seven years behind the food safety program. It's a process in place, and we're confident that we're going to get 10 provinces on board and will move on that basis.
The 80% certified right now reflects the fact that you have to get into an audit cycle. You can't do all the farmers at once or you're going to employ people to audit one year who won't be there to follow on.
We're going through this process. We expect we're going to have full certification within a year from now. We're moving fast. In fact, I think we have gone probably from 50% to 80% in the last 12 months. We're in the process and are moving quickly. We look to be the first commodity on the animal care program, as we were on the on-farm food safety program.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Wild Rose, AB
I guess it would be fair to say that farmers themselves understand the importance of animal welfare and are committed to it. Certainly you're able, through organizations like yours, to ensure that standards are in place, because farmers voluntarily want to make sure that those kinds of standards exist.
12:55 p.m.
Executive Director, Chicken Farmers of Canada
I think the important part is that farmers realize it's important from a societal perspective and from a consumer perspective. If you asked a farmer about the cost, he would say that both the on-farm food safety and the animal care program are adding cost. That is not reflected in the price they are paid. It's an additional cost, but it is, as we put it, a cost of entry into the marketplace today and it reflects the reality that is out there.
If you talk about it from that perspective, they believe it is in their best interest and in the interest of Canadian society overall that they do a good job on this, from both an economic and a societal perspective.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Wild Rose, AB
Thank you.
Ms. Widowski, you have talked a bit about some of your research. We heard the other day about some of your research from the egg farmers. They spoke quite highly of the research you're doing on their behalf through that research chair.
Could you tell me a little bit about the program you teach at the University of Guelph? Tell me a little bit about how long it has been in place, how many students have graduated through the program, and where the students end up. What kind of work do they do following their graduation from the program?
12:55 p.m.
Professor, Department of Animal and Poultry Science and Egg Farmers of Canada Research Chair in Poultry Welfare, University of Guelph, As an Individual
We have a centre at the University of Guelph that was established a number of years ago, the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare. We have one of the largest programs in North America; it is a combination of people and companion animals—laboratory animals, zoo animals, as well as farm animals. These are across the colleges.
Our faculty are engaged in developing science, not just for food animals, but in other areas in which animal care is a concern—research animals, biomedical applications, for example. We have a veterinary school, so companion animals are there also.
Our graduates will have faculty positions, several in the United States—more often in the States. A number of our students have gone into industry jobs; several are working for various commodity groups, doing research or—
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Merv Tweed
I have to stop there, too.
Finish your comment, if you want to. We are out of time.
Are you good? Okay.
With that, I'll thank our guests for being here today. It's always an interesting discussion.
I thank our committee members. Let me advise you that on Tuesday we hope to have the report on the beverage sector to review and finalize. Pay attention, please, to your e-mails, for the report to come to you as quickly as it's completed.
Thank you again. The meeting is adjourned.