Agriculture Committee on Dec. 10th, 2013

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

Do you have a number? Is it 10%, 20%? Do you have a figure?

[Keith Kuhl]

No.

If I look at the potato sector as an example, it has seen significant decreases over the last decade. As our dollar has gone from 65¢ to 94¢ today, the processing plants have moved a lot of production from Canada to the U.S. There are opportunities for processed products to continue to move into Europe. We have probably lost at least 10% of our potato production in Canada over the last 10 years, just due to the changing economies.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Thank you, Mr. Zimmer. Your time is up.

I will now go to Mr. Eyking, please, for five minutes.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to our guests for coming today.

I am a former member of both your organizations, and I've had the experience of growing with you. The produce industry has grown so much, with all the benefits. The wine industry was here before you and was alluding to being the fastest growing crop out there, but I can debate that with regard to the produce industry. It's not only the health issues, but the movement of local produce and how it's grown so well.

We should be positioned quite well with Europe on this on some of the things. We're already in the metric system, but there are other challenges, such as dealing with pesticides and GMOs. As well, some of the other committee members alluded to how the beef industry and the pork industry are going to have to tailor things for the Europeans. Whether it's how they produce the meat, or how they process it, or whatever, it's going to have to be within the EU envelope.

Do you see the industry in Canada...for instance, would it be advantageous for P.E.I. to have non-GMO potatoes? Would certain areas kind of tailor...? Do you see that happening? Or do you see everybody right across the country tailoring to the Europeans? Or do you not see a very big market in the first place?

You've already mentioned, Jane, all these blueberries that are grown, and that's because it's a niche market and they can't do a very good job with them. For the rest of the products, how are we going to fit in, or can we fit in?

[Keith Kuhl]

First of all, other than one apple that's currently being produced on a very limited scale in Canada and is considered GMO, none of the fruits and vegetables that are produced in Canada are GMO, so that aligns us perfectly with trade for Europe. We're much better aligned than corn, soybeans, and canola, because virtually all of that production in Canada is GMO.

The one area, and the area that I did speak on, is pesticides. That's an area where we have ongoing concerns. It's an area where we've had ongoing concerns with our relationship with our U.S. counterparts. It's one where, regrettably, the Canadian producer is actually at a disadvantage over the U.S. producer.

I'll give you an example. I farm within one mile of the U.S. border. When I grow potatoes, if I want to ship those potatoes into a U.S. market, I have to ensure that on those potatoes I'm using only pesticides that are registered in the U.S. The U.S. farmer one mile across the border from me can use pesticides that are not registered in Canada and can ship his product into Canada, and he has no issues.

While Health Canada won't give us the tools that our U.S. counterparts have, they allow that product to come into Canada. It's not a food safety issue, and we're not sure what the issue is, other than a limitation of tools. We're concerned about exactly the same thing in looking at Europe.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

On that, if the United States is lining up for an agreement with the Europeans and they have advantages over us, that wouldn't be fair either, right? We should be more in compliance with that.

[Keith Kuhl]

On an ongoing basis as we continue looking at trade agreements with countries, we have to ensure that we continue to align. Ultimately, with the modern countries—Europe, Canada, the U.S., and others—what we need to do is harmonize our regulations. We need to harmonize our pesticide registration system, and we need to harmonize which pesticides are used.

Our scientists all go to the same schools. They should learn how to figure things out the same way.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

To all of you in your industries, the organic industry is really taking off in Canada and North America. I think it took off earlier in Europe, probably 20 or 30 years ago. That said, now that Canada is starting to move quite fast on that, are we positioned to take advantage of that market over there?

[Keith Kuhl]

Again, I think that Canadian farmers, when they see advantages, seize the advantage, or grab onto the advantage. If there are going to be additional opportunities for organic growth going into the European market, our farmers absolutely will take that opportunity.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Where do you see the big products coming first? Would it be certain varieties of apples we have here that Europeans don't have? Do you see some of our products, besides blueberries, really getting in there right at the starting gate?

[Jane Proctor]

To your last point, one thing that's very encouraging for the organic market is the fact that we already have that mutual recognition. That will really help us, I think, as our production ramps up to take advantage of that.

That's kudos to the government, having that already in place.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Thank you, Mr. Eyking.

We'll now go to Mr. Hoback, for five minutes, please.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Well, Chair, I thank you for letting Mr. Eyking take some of my time.

Merry Christmas, Mr. Eyking.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[An hon. member]

He just went on and on.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

I had better questions.

[An hon. member]

You owe him, Mark.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Hey, I'm a member of the organization.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Just don't say I never gave you anything, okay?

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

That's right. Exactly.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

The clock is still ticking.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

It is, is it? I have a couple of minutes to go, then.

Ms. Proctor, you talked about some of the benefits you might see by new technologies and new stuff coming in from Europe. That's kind of interesting, because we've always talked about what we're going to ship into Europe and how that's going to impact our sectors back in Canada on the idea that we're going to sell there. There's also an idea about how we can become more efficient here in Canada and then sell stuff all over the world and become more competitive.

Can you give us any examples of stuff you might see coming in that way?

[Jane Proctor]

Sure. When we talk about efficiencies and innovation, particularly when we're looking at our supply chain, of course, many pieces touch on that. There is the production side. There are also areas that help the product move through the supply chain in an efficient way.

I referenced this International Federation for Produce Standards that both of our organizations are part of. It is a global group. Part of our focus there is to look at the supply chain efficiencies and how we can leverage some of the great work that's coming out of other countries in the countries that are part of this group. For example, in Europe there is a very strong focus on supply chain efficiencies, led by the Germans—no surprise—and on how you identify and how you exchange electronic data.

We're taking a lot of learnings from that already. As we see these opportunities expand and as our relationships develop, we really hope to see more opportunity for the Canadian industry on the production side all the way through the supply chain to take learnings from Europe. They do that well, and we hope to really integrate it here in Canada so that we can take benefit from that and take costs out of our supply chains and become better at what we do.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Yes.

Mr. Kuhl, one of the things in the horticultural sector that they talked about was that because Canada is such a small market compared with the American market or other markets, to get new types of chemicals approved, new types of technologies in that way....

I'm not sure if we see that in the European trade agreement, but I think the recognition of science would be something that you could appreciate to give you equal footing for the types of products that they use on their crops. We'd have access to it also.