Agriculture Committee on Oct. 9th, 2014

[Humphrey Banack]

I'll talk to the advanced payments program.

Farm sizes are growing immensely. Our farm was 2,000 acres at the turn of the century, and we're at over 5,000 acres today. Our plan is to be at 7,500...and 10,000 acres in 10 years.

The advance payments program is a very important part of that operation to maintain the opportunity for us to sell when markets are right, and that's the biggest part of it. Of course, we can borrow the money at the bank. It is much more expensive. It ties our hands much more than the advance payments program does.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Thank you very much.

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

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

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, folks, for coming.

We Liberals get five minutes, so I'll have to make it short. I have questions for all of you, but I have to keep to a few short ones.

This is a very complicated bill, but it's a good bill, and maybe it should have been here a few years ago. It's going to have an impact on all agriculture. I think that mostly this committee wants to work towards having the right ending here.

Mr. Chorney, I'm going to start with you. You represent a lot of producers in Manitoba. I visited your province last fall, and it's very diverse, with everything from livestock to grains to vegetables—you name it—to processing. So I think you would have a sense of how this bill affects agriculture on the ground. Overall, I have a feeling that your people are very in favour of this bill, or of most of it.

But I'd like to go a little further. I know we talked about the seed rights, and we talked about advance payments, so I don't want to go there, really. There are other parts of this bill that nobody's talking about today. There is a kind of enforcing part, so that bigger fines are incurred by probably farmers and processors. We've had some pushback on that. But there are other parts of the bill, so, Mr. Chorney, I'd like you to tell me, in one minute, what other parts of this bill you might be concerned about or you like or you might want tweaked.

[Doug Chorney]

We actually did a complete review of Bill C-18 preparing for this presentation. Our staff never really actually identified major concerns with any of the other changes or amendments. We know there are a lot of modernization aspects to the other acts that are just bringing them up to date and making them relevant for 2014.

The key things we wanted to focus on were what our members have been talking about. Although our organization is generally speaking in favour of this, I did throw some caution out, as did Mr. Sawyer, about farmer concerns regarding saving seed. That's the reality we're hearing about quite often from a broad range of our members. Manitoba is a unique province in the sense that, when you compare it to the other prairie provinces, we have a tremendous growing season, and we have a lot of diversity in our production, and special crops.

We think that farmers embrace innovation and opportunities when they're given that chance. Doing things like bringing new varieties forward is key for profitability. I look at the way I operate my farm today compared to the way my father would have operated that farm 40 years ago, and it's significantly different. We're much more productive. We're always challenged with environmental issues and market conditions. Those are realities. But certainly farming is changing rapidly, and we have to be continually adapting to opportunities but also to the realities of what the environment presents to us.

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

You also have a very big processing industry in Manitoba, and I know there are a lot of complaints about temporary foreign workers, and we're not talking about that today. Part of this bill has big fines dealing with food safety. We know the federal government has cut back on a lot of inspectors and has increased the fines. Is that a problem for your federation?

[Doug Chorney]

We don't have any policy on the fines for food processors so I'd prefer not to comment.

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

I have a question for Mr. Banack. I asked the same question to the National Farmers Union because your group is associated with farm organizations from many other countries. What are you hearing from the other countries that you are affiliated with on how these changes have changed their way of farming, on the seed side mostly?

[Humphrey Banack]

The Oceanic countries, Australia and New Zealand, went to plant breeders’ rights and end point royalties many years ago. They're saying we seem to be missing a huge opportunity with end point royalties. They've developed many farmer-owned plant breeding companies to develop seeds and move theirs forward. Our biggest trading partner right across the border, the United States, has signed on to UPOV 91. They don't have as many end point royalties as the other countries have, but there is flexibility within this law. It does not say that end point royalties will be imposed. It says that it is one opportunity for our plant breeders to retain their return on their investment.

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

So you see what's in there staying as is. There could be a little tweaking on the terminology, but overall the majority of those changes have to be made for the people you represent to move forward, to be competitive with the rest of the world.

[Humphrey Banack]

Absolutely, the development of varieties that deal with this, with drought resistance.... As Doug said, we're coming to the time when we're seeding corn and soybeans in southern Manitoba and southern Alberta. A climate change forum I sat with yesterday talked about how climate change is affecting our producers across this country. We're starting to see fusarium head blight in some of our wheat in Alberta. Fusarium will be a huge issue. The ability for plant breeders to recognize issues and move forward and get return on their investment is critical.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Thank you very much.

Now we'll go to Mr. Hoback for five minutes, please.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chorney, you talked a little about fusarium in Manitoba. We know it's been a substantial issue for a number of years. Is it because of lack of plant breeders' rights that you have been unable to get proper research on fusarium in Manitoba? Is this going to help improve that scenario so you can focus on what is required for fusarium in Manitoba?

[Doug Chorney]

I think there's a great opportunity here. Manitoba has a relatively small market in the scope of the entire prairie region. We do know our neighbours to the south in the U.S. have had similar experiences with fusarium head blight, and some varieties have been developed through public programs at the universities in the U.S. This year I grew a spring wheat variety on my farm that was developed in North Dakota through an IP program and I had very good results with fusarium tolerance. We've seen progress, and I know that we will have an opportunity to see more of that in the future when we see plant breeders getting an opportunity to recover their investment. The committee has no doubt already heard with cereal crops generally only about 20% of farmers are buying certified seed every year. So about 80% of the seed is saved. A lot of that is going on, and it makes it difficult for a seed developer to recover that cost.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

The canola sector might be a better example where we've seen people embrace the certified seed, or buying seed every year because they've seen the yield advantage. I could only dream of the days when I was farming up to 60 bushels of canola and everybody talks about that being common these days. Again, it shows what can happen when you start getting good genetics and good seed varieties. When it comes to the changes to AMPA in Manitoba and the impact on your farmers, now you'll be able to go to one location and do a wheat advance, a barley advance, and a canola advance. How is that going to impact on your farmers?

[Doug Chorney]

That concern came up prior to Bill C-18 being introduced. Our members asked for that kind of flexibility, and I know that this is very welcomed by our members. It's going to give producers the opportunity to have one-stop shopping so to speak with their cash advance and a lot of flexibility. Anything we can do to streamline that program is going to be a positive step.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

But there's no question that the program is needed, and no question.... You would probably agree that you'd like to see even bigger numbers somewhere down the road.

[Doug Chorney]

Well, yes, if I could just delve a bit into the comment about the lack of people who hit the limits. The challenge is that when we talked to AAFC officials last year, they told us that in fact not all farmers use the cash advance program, and not all of them are hitting the limits. That's true, but what is also true is that the people who do use the program really need it. They make it a key part of their cashflow management system.

The more we can do to allow farmers to use programs like that, the more it will take the pressure off things like AgriStability, where you're going to see potential liabilities for public money. If you can extract profitability from the marketplace, that's a win-win for everybody, every time.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Mr. Sawyer, for the barley commission, again, it would be the same scenario with barley, where they're looking at new feed varieties or new Vault varieties. How do you see the impact of this legislation providing the framework for more development and more research in barley varieties in western Canada or in Canada as a whole?

[Matt Sawyer]

Well, it seems very positive. There's a lot of opportunity, as some of my colleagues have mentioned. There has been a switch to other varieties, whether that has been soybeans and expanding soybean acres or whether it's corn acres.

That also puts in an opportunity for barley. We know that the States have backed off some of their varieties of barley as far as malt barley production goes. Speaking for Alberta, I think we produce some of the best quality malt in the world. That's an opportunity, and that will attract investment for different varieties of barley to be produced here. As well, we have the feedlots that use a lot of barley.

Yes, we're excited about the opportunity, and hopefully that will attract more investment here as well.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

You've also just highlighted the fact that you're starting to see corn, soybeans, and different types of pulses going further and further north, again because of new genetics and new plant-breeding techniques. I guess that's helpful as far as rotations and the management of wheat cycles and even disease cycles go. Would that not be the case?

[Matt Sawyer]

Yes, for sure. It will open the door to more crops being grown or to the ability to grow different types of crops. It's exciting to have that idea and have it moving forward.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Thank you, Mr. Hoback.

I'm going to go to Madam Raynault for a little less than five minutes, please.

[Francine Raynault, NDP, Joliette, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank the witness for agreeing to stay with us for a few extra minutes.

Mr. Dahl, in your presentation, you said, Bill "C-18 is a positive initiative and I do not want to stray into the negative."

Could you give me a few examples of what you see as the negative aspects of Bill C-18?

[Cam Dahl]

Not of Bill C-18. When I said that I didn't want to dwell on negative aspects, there would be concerns if parliamentarians chose not to adopt these. There are many negative implications of not moving forward with the modernization of our regulatory environment.

Those implications of not moving forward mean that investment will happen in other countries and that farmers in other countries will receive those benefits, not Canadian farmers. The negative aspect of this would be not moving forward. We need to move ahead.

[Francine Raynault, NDP, Joliette, QC]

Given how much time I have left, my next question will be for all of you.

Bill C-18 makes changes to nine federal statutes and is meant to improve the agricultural sector's ability to compete and innovate.

How will Bill C-18 encourage competitiveness and innovation in your respective areas?

Perhaps those joining us by videoconference can go first.