Evidence of meeting #3 for Special Committee on Cooperatives in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cooperatives.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3:25 p.m.
NDP
Wayne Marston NDP Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
Good one.
At the finance committee, in pre-budget hearings, we heard a lot of talk about the federal cooperative investment plan, CIP, which provides a tax credit for co-op members and employees who invest, and so on.
Do you have any comments on the use of CIP and the expansion of it?
3:25 p.m.
Chief Operations Officer, Gay Lea Foods Cooperative Ltd.
Certainly Gay Lea is a big supporter of the program. Again, we didn't utilize it ourselves because we're kind of in that middle tier.
I saw great success with it in the model, both at the local Ontario level and at the federal level as well. I think the program is an important one.
3:25 p.m.
NDP
3:25 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Thank you very much, Chair.
Thank you, to both of you, for being here, and for this great discussion we're having.
Michael, on the Gay Lea side, I take it you're involved in processing throughout the various stages.
I'm not sure I quite understand the co-op aspect. Are all the processing and subprocessing companies or affiliates co-ops as well, or is it just Gay Lea at the top level that's a co-op and you might have different structures underneath it?
3:25 p.m.
Chief Operations Officer, Gay Lea Foods Cooperative Ltd.
Gay Lea owns all of its own processing facilities. We take the milk from DFO and we process it through our six facilities.
3:25 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
So those six facilities are all part of the co-op. They're all considered to be an asset of the co-op.
3:25 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
All right.
When it comes to farmers who are members of the co-op, is there a sort of link outside of it perhaps being considered an investment on their part? How would a dairy farmer benefit from being a member of the co-op? He's a farmer, as opposed to a member who is not a farmer being a member of that co-op.
3:25 p.m.
Chief Operations Officer, Gay Lea Foods Cooperative Ltd.
Certainly there is a financial gain. You get a gain, obviously, with the milk—
3:25 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Right. That's for all members, though. That's farmers and non-farmers.
3:25 p.m.
Chief Operations Officer, Gay Lea Foods Cooperative Ltd.
That's for all members. I'm a member as well, and I get a dividend on the shares I own. It's a different dividend because I'm not a farmer.
But certainly they do get an opportunity to get information from the sector. Because the cooperative sector has transparency, they are involved and have influence in helping to determine what's going on at Dairy Farmers of Ontario, to influence the CDC. They're getting inside information. They're getting what's happening with the retailers. We're sharing that information, and we're educating them.
I would say our members have a much better understanding of the market in which they participate, and they understand that their market doesn't end at the farm gate.
3:25 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Right. That is probably useful.
Of course, sometimes there is friction between the providers of a raw material, such as fluid milk, and processors. They need each other, and yet there can be friction points.
Do you find that relationship reduces friction points?
July 10th, 2012 / 3:30 p.m.
Chief Operations Officer, Gay Lea Foods Cooperative Ltd.
It certainly does reduce it, because it gives us the opportunity to hear directly from our farmer-members on what's important to them and what policies should be influenced.
Also, on the other side, many times we can operate in a vacuum, and some of our members can do that, but when they are sitting at the table being educated about what's going on in the marketplace, they have a much better understanding and appreciation that some of the things they're demanding on the farm don't necessarily work from a global perspective or in a retail sector.
3:30 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Right. That cross-pollination of information would be important.
3:30 p.m.
Chief Operations Officer, Gay Lea Foods Cooperative Ltd.
It's very, very positive.
3:30 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
I could see that.
Let me ask about the impact of different federal initiatives and programs. You're involved in processing. You're a co-op. Are you able to take advantage, for example, of the accelerated capitalization of new manufacturing equipment?
3:30 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
So you'd be on equal footing with non-co-op industry?
3:30 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
When it comes to lower corporate tax rates, do you benefit from that as a co-op?
3:30 p.m.
Chief Operations Officer, Gay Lea Foods Cooperative Ltd.
Every time there is a reduction in the corporate tax rate, our members benefit from that.
