Yes, that's good to go.
Evidence of meeting #11 for International Trade in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was workers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #11 for International Trade in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was workers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:40 a.m.
Caalen Covey Manager, Business Development and Markets, Alberta Wheat Commission
Yes, that's good to go.
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
Well, thank you very much for all the submissions here.
We're going to start our rounds of questioning with Minister Ritz. Minister Ritz, do you like that appellation?
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
Gerry Ritz Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
Yes. It's great, thanks. I'm not sure that Lawrence will like it that much.
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
Gerry Ritz Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
Ladies and gentlemen, it's good to see you again today. Thank you for your presentations.
Discussions on tariffs aren't the only thing we want to tackle in a trade agreement. There are always hurdles that get thrown up behind the tariff walls, and we've seen a number of those, even from some of the countries in the TPP. Japan is great at popping in to look after their own industries every once in a while.
As much as we could possibly get done on MRLs and low-level presence—all of those little sticking points—has been done. However, there's always more to do. There's a real backlog at Codex on MRLs, for instance, and I think it's incumbent on us, as industry and as government, to tackle that list, because I don't think Codex is ever going to keep up let alone catch up. That limits our ability to draw generics into the mix, because they'll never get the MRLs done on those. As they become generics, they're focused on the new products. That's just an aside on a lot of what you were talking about.
Of course, agriculture is a major trading part of Canada. It's a valuable part—the third largest contributor to GDP—and it all relies on stability or predictability of market access. The trade corridors give you market indications on crop rotations, inputs, a lot of things that go into the science of running a farm.
Have you done any work on investment that could be drawn from these TPP countries now with access, when it comes to logistics and handling? We always have shortfalls there. Do you see the ability of, say, companies in Japan to come in and start to make investments in our cropping cycles here?
11:40 a.m.
Vice-Chair, Alberta Pulse Growers Commission
Well, I can speak to what I've seen in my travels in Southeast Asia. I've had the opportunity to go to China and India over the last few years, which aren't TPP countries, but they're in that area. They're all looking for areas of investment. Like you say, they're looking for predictability and access to the supply. Of course, for my farm, I have 1,300 kilometres before I hit the water that gives me that access.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
11:45 a.m.
Vice-Chair, Alberta Pulse Growers Commission
Yes, they are looking for those opportunities to invest in Canada that can facilitate that and get that product in place. It may be in smaller quantities, less bulk, more fractions, more flours, look at different options, and then facilitate it through an agreement that removes those concerns such as you mentioned earlier, the non-tariff trade barriers, that we run into more often than not. Canola may have spoken to to that on some more recent opportunities there, but that is where I see it as eliminating some of those issues.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Gerry Ritz Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
For years we were known as hewers of wood and drawers of water, and a lot of that changed with the Wheat Board moving out of the picture. They are still viable and vibrant under G3, but at the end of the day that's going to start to draw some value-added as we look for selling countries around the world, buyers around the world—and what they want, not what we have.
We're looking at blends of a lot of the products that you guys are growing. Of course, we want to put it all in canola oil, but at the end of the day we're starting to see pulses, pea flour mixed in with durum, to give us a protein in a pasta—there's a huge demand for those types of things—food-grade barleys and so on going into the Japanese market to supplant some of the rice.
Do you foresee that type of investment being available, that type of project starting to move forward so we can address those growing niche markets?
11:45 a.m.
Executive Director, Alberta Pulse Growers Commission
With respect to Alberta, D'Arcy mentioned in his presentation that we know that in the next two years we probably are going to have somebody within the province who will do further value-added processing. For us this is really critical. We have obviously been putting forward mostly commodities for export, and the opportunity for our farmers to have a choice to go beyond the export borders into something more highly valued; you mentioned the pea proteins, the fibres, and the starch opportunities. It's just a matter of getting the people set up in Alberta to get it moving. We know that across other parts of Canada there is a greater interest in those types of products.
With TPP, the advantage for us if we sign that agreement is that some of those non-tariff trade barriers on the further valued-added product will be reduced. For pulses specifically, I think there could be a good opportunity there.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Gerry Ritz Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
Should we wait for the Americans to ratify, or should we move forward and put pressure on them to move?
11:45 a.m.
Executive Director, Alberta Pulse Growers Commission
I would say move forward as soon as possible; be a leader in it.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
Thank you for those questions and the answers.
Now we're going to move on to the Liberals and Mr. Fonseca. Go ahead for five minutes.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Peter Fonseca Liberal Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
Earlier today, we heard from the Alberta beef producers, who were telling us about these high-value markets. They were talking about places like Japan that maybe use parts of the animal that we wouldn't—the tongue or the stomach or whatever.
I want to ask you about your high-value countries. What would be high-value countries for canola? Is that the market you'd be looking at, or is it that canola as a whole is....
11:45 a.m.
Chair, Alberta Canola Producers Commission
As far as high-value countries are concerned, the perspective we like to take with canola is that we are a high-value product. We compete favourably, with our health profile quality, with a lot of the oilseeds and vegetable oil products out in the world. Japan is certainly a high-value country, but it is also a very stable country. The demand doesn't change a whole bunch for the canola. We'd like to see the processing being done in Canada for that market. The TPP offers access to a lot of the growth countries, and that's, I think, where canola definitely benefits. In Vietnam, the preferential tariff situation that we would get, or the detrimental tariff treatment we would get with this agreement relative to Vietnam, which is a hugely growing market, is something that definitely benefits us.
As far as premium markets are concerned, we have a very high-quality product, like the beef, that does demand a higher price in the marketplace.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Peter Fonseca Liberal Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
Ms Whitley, in your remarks did you say that 99% is exported or that 90% is exported?
11:45 a.m.
Manager, Policy Development, Canadian Canola Growers Association, Alberta Canola Producers Commission
It is 90%. I did almost trip up on that, but it is 90%.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Peter Fonseca Liberal Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
Well, 99% is just about everything.
How big is the canola market for us in dollars? You told me that it would grow by $780 million per year if the TPP were ratified. Is that what you said?
11:50 a.m.
Manager, Policy Development, Canadian Canola Growers Association, Alberta Canola Producers Commission
Yes, what we predict, based on studies we have done, is we could grow our exports up to $780 million annually or one million tonnes extra of oil and meal exports.
11:50 a.m.
Manager, Policy Development, Canadian Canola Growers Association, Alberta Canola Producers Commission
In terms of dollar values, our total exports, I believe, are $8.9 billion. It would be a significant increase on what we have today.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Peter Fonseca Liberal Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
It's about 8%.
Earlier today, the Alberta Federation of Labour was here. Their major concern and focus is on good quality jobs. If Canola exports increase by $780 million per year under the TPP, how many jobs would that represent, and would these be well-paying jobs that are brought to Canada?
11:50 a.m.
Manager, Policy Development, Canadian Canola Growers Association, Alberta Canola Producers Commission
By increasing the added value of our exports, we're also creating jobs in the processing facilities we have in Canada. We have processing facilities across the Prairies; in Alberta they are based both in rural and urban areas. These processors support their communities at their operating end. They provide high-value jobs for Canadians. They provide services for the areas they're in. By growing these markets further, we see that as the ability to create jobs and not just detract from the jobs that we currently have.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Peter Fonseca Liberal Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
Can you quantify that? Did you get a good number?
11:50 a.m.
Chair, Alberta Canola Producers Commission
If I might add, it's not necessarily the number of jobs but the quality of the jobs.
The processing of canola is completed in a refinery-type setting. It's process equipment. These are highly technical, well-paid positions. We are not talking about menial work, we're talking about jobs where a single job could support a family in a reasonable lifestyle, which I think is a good testament. I don't have any absolute numbers.