Bill C-280

Financial Protection for Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Farmers Act

An Act to amend the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (deemed trust – perishable fruits and vegetables)

This enactment amends the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act to provide that the perishable fruits and vegetables sold by a supplier to a purchaser, as well as the proceeds of sale of those fruits and vegetables, are to be held in trust by the purchaser for the supplier in the event that the purchaser has not fully paid for the fruits or vegetables and becomes bankrupt or the subject to a receivership or applies to the court to sanction a compromise or an arrangement.

Financial Protection for Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Farmers Act

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, Carol Hughes]

Order. It is starting to get a bit noisy in the House.

If members are not interested in listening to what is being discussed and wish to have conversations, I would ask them to step out.

The hon. member for Berthier—Maskinongé.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Madam Speaker, I always love it when the people I am talking to appear to be listening, at least.

What I was saying is that it is essential. I challenge anyone here to accept the same working conditions as those people. Rain in the summer brings us down because we cannot go for motorcycle rides or head to the beach. What do they do when it rains? They do building maintenance. They go place orders. They do their paperwork because they do not have time for that when it is nice out. They have to be in the field 14 hours a day because they have no workers. Why do they have no workers? Because the government is so slow at processing foreign worker applications and because governments failed to see the current labour shortage coming.

I would like to say a thing or two about the labour shortage. I was a high school teacher. I was not an internationally renowned scientist. I was a high school geography teacher and, in the early 1990s, I taught my students that we would have a labour shortage now. Nobody did anything to avert that, and now people are stuck in this situation. They have no workers. Locals do not want to get their hands dirty, so people have to find other workers.

These folks are facing a labour shortage. They have to mechanize a lot of the production, and that means thousands if not millions in investments that generate debt. These people are heavily in debt. They called for help in spring and early summer, when torrential rains just about wiped out their harvest. Why did they call for help? They called for help because the crop insurance programs we have, the ones currently in place, the ones that the good old ministers refer us to whenever we ask them a question, do not work. Growers are not being adequately insured because the programs were designed 30 years ago in a more stable climate.

Yes, global warming exists. At the very least, I can tell the House that there is so much climate disruption that the last three years have been a disaster for produce growers. First, there was a drought. Then there were aphids. Why aphids? Because the hot season lasts much longer. The aphids moved further north. As they ran out of soybeans to eat, they moved on to fruits and vegetables. That happened last year. This year, there has been non-stop rain. We broke all-time records, particularly in the Eastern Townships, but just about everywhere in Quebec. It is all over the board. During the same period, there was a drought in Abitibi—Témiscamingue and northern Quebec as we tried to navigate our way through the smoke from the forest fires.

All these things are real. As a society, we are going to have to sit down with these people and discuss how to share the risk factor. We cannot just keep asking growers to put $2 million, $3 million or $4 million into their fields in the spring and get nothing back but us thanking them for feeding us and telling them that if they run into issues, they will need to figure it out on their own. We cannot do that.

I am digressing a bit from the subject of the bill to illustrate the fragility of this sector. I am a bit tired of hearing politicians talk about food sovereignty and how important it is to buy local. For 10 years now, we have been talking about this kind of simple, free measure that will not cost the government a thing, and yet it still has not been done.

I wish there could have been unanimous consent to send the bill to the Senate this evening. I am angry and upset because people who are celebrating and congratulating the member for York—Simcoe on his outstanding leadership, who say they are so happy to be voting this way for farmers, did not give unanimous consent. That means we will have to spend who knows how much more time on this in the House before sending it to the Senate. We also have to hope that place will deal with this efficiently so it can come back here and be made law.

Bills like this can be hard to implement. There are jurisdictional challenges that mean negotiations with other levels of government. That is important. We have to move quickly. Our fresh fruit and vegetable farmers are looking to us. They feed us now, but for how much longer? I think they are going to get sick of it and go find something else to do. Maybe grow field crops. Maybe sell their land. That is what we are up against. Let us pass this bill pronto.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Madam Speaker, I am extremely proud to be standing in the House on behalf of the fruit and vegetable farmers in my region of Cowichan—Malahat—Langford. My region and the Cowichan region have a long and storied history in agriculture. I would like to remind all members that the Cowichan Valley is in fact Canada's only Mediterranean climatic zone. The Halkomelem language is the language of the Quw'utsun; the Cowichan name is the anglicized version of that, and it roughly translates into the “warm lands”.

We are an agricultural powerhouse in the Cowichan region. I have been proud to call that area my home for over 30 years, and I am proud to be standing in this House in support of Bill C-280. This is a measure that has long been talked about in this very chamber, and we now have an opportunity to actually change the law. As many colleagues have pointed out, this is going to be of no cost but of huge benefit to the people it directly concerns.

I want to thank the people who have spoken before me: the sponsor, the member for York—Simcoe; the member for Kings—Hants; and the member for Berthier—Maskinongé. I have the pleasure of serving with two of those colleagues on the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food. I have been the proud agricultural critic for the NDP since January 2018, so I know this subject very well. This is my third Parliament on the agriculture committee, and this subject has come up time and time again.

I do not want to delve too much into the details. We know that this issue matters because of the nature of the product we are talking about. Fruits and vegetables only have a tiny bit of shelf life before they have no more value. This is a unique product, and that is why we need to have this kind of a deemed trust.

It is not as though farmers, who are taking all the risk, can recoup losses by taking the product back; it is perishable in nature. We know that farmers deal with high costs. They have high input costs. It is expensive to buy machinery and erect greenhouses. In fact, almost all farmers' money is tied up in infrastructure, whether that is machinery or land. They are, in other words, land rich but cash poor.

This is a business model that is based on the tightest of margins, and anything the Parliament can do to ease up and make the payment process more guaranteed is something we should look at seriously. I am happy to say Bill C-280 would do that.

I would argue that, instead of this being just a Conservative bill, this bill is expressly non-partisan. I know the NDP has been fighting for this, as part of our electoral promise to Canadians, since 2015. Moreover, it is non-partisan by virtue of the fact that the second reading of this bill was unanimous. It sailed through committee. We had three meetings; we heard from a variety of witnesses. However, we decided as a committee to report this bill back to the House without amendments. It has the committee's stamp of approval, and I hope members in this chamber take note of that and seek to give it rapid passage.

This bill has been the subject of many committee studies. I have almost lost count of how many times, at different committees and different parliaments, we have seen a recommendation for this type of measure to be enacted by the House of Commons.

The time is now. I would like to see this bill pass through third reading, get to the Senate and start getting the traction it needs. The Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada, the Canadian Produce Marketing Association and the thousands of people they represent are watching us. They are waiting for action.

I will conclude my remarks by proudly saying that I will be supporting this bill, along with the NDP caucus. We look forward to its speedy passage to the other place; hopefully, it will eventually find its way to the Governor General's desk and receive the royal assent it deserves.

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from York—Simcoe for putting Bill C-280, the financial protection for fresh fruit and vegetable farmers act, forward. It is a very important bill, and it has been a long time coming. I was elected nearly four years ago and we have been talking about this through the last two Parliaments, and I know it was talked about long before then. It is great to see all parties come together to support something that will help our Canadian produce growers, packers and shippers immensely.

During a Zoom call with The Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada, I heard that 52% of perishable product sales to U.S. customers from Canadian suppliers await payment from the United States. California producers and suppliers have a similar problem with their Canadian customers. On October 1, 2014, the United States Department of Agriculture revoked preferred treatment for Canadian shippers under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. This was taken in retaliation for an action on the part of Canada with regard to establishing some type of trust protection from bankruptcy for all fresh produce shipped into the U.S. Under that status, Canadian companies did not have to post surety bonds when trying to collect payments from delinquent buyers. No other nation had such status.

Without the special status, a Canadian shipper must now post a bond for twice the amount they are seeking to collect. Taking action to recover $100,000 would require the purchase of a $200,000 bond. Current rules severely limit the ability of produce growers and sellers to collect payment in the event that their buyer declares bankruptcy.

While products like electronics can be reclaimed by the seller, highly perishable produce is lost because of the obvious. It spoils and rots very quickly, costing Canadian and U.S. firms that operate in Canada an average of $19 million per year, but there is a policy solution to this. In 1984, the United States Congress established “deemed trust” provisions through the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, also known as PACA, and that protected shippers in the event their buyer became insolvent. The PACA trust helps suppliers of perishable products ensure prompt payment by buyers.

The trust gives suppliers interest in a debtor's assets. Creating a reciprocal legal framework in Canada by federal statute for a PACA-like “deemed trust” would not draw on federal or provincial public treasuries but would offer Canadian producers and suppliers the means to collect on accounts payable from U.S. customers and give U.S. producers and suppliers the means to collect on accounts payable from Canadian customers.

My colleagues have gone into a lot of the details of this bill and I would like to take a bit of a different approach. I would like to give some personal perspective and a little history of my experience in the fresh produce sector to provide some personal context on how this legislation would benefit growers and shippers.

I grew up on a produce farm. I am a third-generation farmer and my grandparents on both sides of my family were essentially pioneers in the produce industry in the area that I grew up in, which is my hometown of Grand Bend, Ontario. My dad's parents, my oma and opa, immigrated from Holland and were one of the first five families to start farming in what is called the Klondyke marsh. My mom's parents immigrated to Canada from Poland via Germany and moved to Grand Bend after living in the Chatham area where they first started growing vegetables.

They cleared their land and began farming in the Grand Bend bog, which used to be a shallow lake that was drained to become rich farmland. They grew potatoes, onions, carrots, lettuce and onion sets over the years. Eventually, my dad's parents retired and the family farm that my grandparents started, which now involved two families, took over growing some of the vegetables that my oma and opa used to grow. Farmers are innovators, and I would like to give one example from personal experience.

When I was growing up, it would be time to harvest our potatoes and my dad would go out to the field and hand-dig potatoes to see what stage of growth they were at. There are many things that farmers can automate, but this is not one that can be automated. This is still done by farmers putting their hands in the dirt and digging those little nuggets out of the ground by hand. When my dad would do test digs, he would bring all these little potato nuggets home, and we would never waste them. We would cook them up and eat them for supper. I can tell everyone that those were the most absolutely delicious potatoes.

To provide some context, back in the 1980s when I grew up, the CFIA regulations stipulated that undersized potatoes could not be packaged, and so all of those small undersized potatoes that we harvested would either be discarded for cattle feed or put in a compost pile. There was an enormous amount of perfectly good eating potatoes that became food waste because of packaging regulations. There came a point where my mom thought, “Well, jeez, we're always throwing these undersized potatoes out and they're the most delicious thing ever. Why are we doing this when they taste so good?” These little mini nuggets were so delicious that we wanted to share them with everybody else. Our farm made an application to the CFIA asking that we be able to bag these mini potatoes and sell them. So, the mini gourmet potato bag was born, and our family farm became the first farm in Canada to bring mini potatoes to market.

Now, members are probably wondering why the short history lesson on my family farm. Well, I wanted to provide context from the unique perspective that I hold as the only parliamentarian who is still involved in the fresh produce industry and produce farming.

Before my parents retired from farming, their farm was growing over 1,000 acres of potatoes in southwestern Ontario for grocery retailers. To meet grocery store expectations, we also relied on local smaller farms as well as smaller farms from across Canada in different provinces to supply us with Canadian product in our season. If we could not supply the grocery stores with the product they wanted when they wanted it, then they would not even consider us as a farm to be a supplier. However, the grocery stores had to supply year-round, and so we had to grow potatoes around North America in order to keep the supply going to supply grocery stores. We had farms contracted to custom grow for us in California, Florida, Idaho, North Carolina and Michigan. Our packing facility in Grand Bend used to process anywhere from 5,000 to 6,000 acres through it per year.

Members can imagine the coordination that it would take to keep everything going when we have farms across North America supplying us. There would be a constant flow of trucks coming back and forth from all over the United States into Canada and from Canada into the States. The potatoes would be coming for us to process and package in our plant so that we could then give Canadians fresh potatoes on the grocery store shelves. We had to do this year round. With bringing upwards of 4,000 acres of fresh potatoes across the border to Canada from the United States every year, members can imagine the dollar value that would be for that product.

However, not only did we pack potatoes from the U.S., we also exported our excess crop during harvest season to the United States. The growing season in the United States is different from Canada's growing season in many parts. Being neighbours, we rely on each other to ensure a fresh food supply year-round. Canadians grow an abundance of fresh, perishable food, far greater than what we consume, and we are blessed to live in a country to be able to do so, but with that comes a huge amount of risk.

In this industry, it is standard practice to be paid 30 to 45 days from the time a product is received. As members can imagine, the shelf life of fresh produce is far less than the payment terms that sellers are working with. The intricacies of our supply chain for fresh food are far greater than anyone could ever imagine. When farmers are exporting millions of dollars in perishable food from the United States without a reciprocal agreement to ensure that they have a mechanism to be paid in the event of a dispute or a bankruptcy, it becomes a risky business. One bad deal or one dispute could literally bankrupt a family farm, especially since most companies could not afford to put up a bond worth double what they are disputing. Produce farmers work on such tight margins that one sale of a quarter of a million dollars or a half million dollars could be three to five tractor-trailer loads of goods to one customer in the States, which they might not get paid for. This could bankrupt a smaller farmer. While this might sound extreme, I have seen this happen to a young farmer first-hand.

In Canada, when there is a dispute between growers and sellers in this country, we have a mechanism to resolve those disputes, but without the deemed trust, we have no mechanism to resolve disputes between growers and sellers in the United States and Canada that is affordable for growers to access.

I am very passionate about this industry, because it has literally been my family's bread and butter my entire life. I have friends across the industry who would welcome this important change, because it would help protect the livelihoods of families, their farms and their businesses. Creating this deemed trust and having that reciprocal agreement with the U.S. would protect farms from having to bear those losses in the event of a dispute.

This will save family farms. I will always fight for Canadian farmers, their livelihoods and their legacies. At a time when food security and food sovereignty are top of mind, this is needed to protect this industry in Canada, and that is why I support this bill on behalf of my constituents and consumers.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety]

Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to speak today about Bill C-280, a private member's bill introduced by the member for York—Simcoe. Allow me to extend my congratulations to the bill's sponsor on this important work as it aims to protect our fresh produce farmers and sellers who provide Canadians with access to fresh produce for their families.

Bill C-280, an act to amend the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (deemed trust – perishable fruits and vegetables), addresses the need for payment protection in the fresh produce industry through insolvency law amendments in cases of buyer bankruptcy, receivership and large commercial restructuring.

The bill would create a special legal mechanism known as a “deemed trust” to pay the unpaid bills of fresh fruit and vegetable sellers ahead of all creditors if a buyer becomes insolvent. The deemed trust would provide important protection in insolvency proceedings to the sellers of fresh fruits and vegetables against unique payment risks faced by the fresh produce industry, such as the perishable nature of fresh produce.

Members of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food studied the bill with the assistance of testimony from representatives of the fresh produce industry and the bill was reported back to the House with unanimous support. With our support of Bill C-280, we hope to increase the likelihood that the United States will restore Canada's preferential access to the formal—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, Carol Hughes]

We have a point of order.

The hon. member for Shefford.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Madam Speaker, I apologize, but I am rising to ensure the safety of the interpreters. They have just indicated that there is a telephone too close to the microphone. I am thinking of them. We know that this can sometimes cause acoustic shocks, so it is important to be careful.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, Carol Hughes]

I do not know if the hon. member's phone is perhaps on her desk.

I will ask the hon. member to move her phone. It may be vibrating at some point, I do not know. There may be some static there.

The hon. member has 30 to 40 seconds before I interrupt her.

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

Madam Speaker, we hope to increase the likelihood that the United States will restore Canada's preferential access to the formal dispute resolution process under the United States' Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, PACA, which regulates the fresh produce sector and provides financial protection for sellers.

I know I am about to be cut off, but PACA is a U.S. legislative and regulatory regime that regulates the fresh produce industry. I will continue at a later time.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, Carol Hughes]

The time provided for the consideration of Private Members' Business has now expired and the order is dropped to the bottom of the order of precedence on the Order Paper.

The House resumed from October 3 consideration of the motion that Bill C‑280, An Act to amend the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (deemed trust – perishable fruits and vegetables), be read the third time and passed.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure what I did to deserve such applause and support from my Conservative colleagues, but I appreciate it. Sometimes it is possible to be transpartisan when one has good ideas. I tip my hat to my dear friends.

It is a great pleasure for me to rise in the House today to speak to Bill C‑280, which is extremely important for our farmers, particularly our fruit and vegetable growers. Bill C‑280 seeks to amend the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act to put vendors of perishable products, such as fruits and vegetables, at the top of the list by holding the production value in trust. Perishable goods are a special case when a company goes bankrupt because the supplier cannot simply take back its goods and resell them. This measure is necessary and our farmers deserve it. The Bloc Québécois strongly supports Bill C‑280.

As a representative of Quebec's agri-food capital, I am obviously very concerned about the agricultural industry and its artisans. I often say that they hold the only occupation that we need three times a day. That is why I want to thank the hon. member for York—Simcoe, who is sponsoring this bill in the House, and my esteemed colleague and friend, the hon. member for Berthier—Maskinongé, who is co-sponsoring it.

I know how important it is for our two colleagues and all my Bloc Québécois colleagues to pass this bill quickly. The protective measure it will bring in is desperately needed across Quebec. We look forward to seeing it implemented. I share their eagerness to finally see our fruit and vegetable suppliers protected, so they can avoid seeing their crops go to the compost pile without being able to do anything about it. Not everyone in the House is quite as keen, despite the unanimous support this bill has received. We asked for unanimous consent to send Bill C-280 directly to the Senate, but unfortunately, some members would not give their consent.

This is a long-standing demand. The Liberals promised back in September 2014 to address this issue with the Canadian Produce Marketing Association if they were elected in 2015. They reiterated their commitment in 2016. The NDP and the Conservatives also made similar promises in their election platforms. It was also in their platforms in 2021, so I have to wonder why this has taken so long and why Bill C-280 could not be fast-tracked to the Senate.

We are now in 2023. The first promise was made in 2014 and we are in 2023. Better sooner than later, but better late than never. I am pleased to see that we are near our goal, especially given that the implementation of our protection will also help remove an irritant in our relationship with our American neighbours.

The sector's request of such a bill has been so strong since 2014 because on October 1 of that year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture revoked preferential access from its legislation for perishable agricultural products from producers here at home. Up until that point, Canadian and Quebec farmers were protected by this legislation in cases where American purchasers declared bankruptcy. Since Canada, for its part, did not have a trust mechanism for cases of buyer bankruptcy that could have protected American farmers, the U.S. decided to remove that security from Canadian suppliers. In short, they did that in response to a gap in our legislation.

Although an alternative process has been developed between the two countries, it is extraordinarily cumbersome, especially for smaller companies, which have to undertake the tedious process of filing a lawsuit. If they decide to take on this bureaucratic ordeal, they must post a bond worth double the amount claimed in the lawsuit, according to the Canadian Produce Marketing Association. Then they are in a pickle, if I may say so. I am not just using that expression because we are talking about produce. In short, they are in a pickle and the major buyers know it. As a result, companies are forced to negotiate downward with the buyer, because they would still rather receive a fraction of the value of the fruits of their labour than nothing at all.

The U.S. is demanding that Canada provide protection similar to that offered by the U.S. Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act before it will again give Canadian producers access to its program. Passing the bill we have before us today will provide protection not only for our producers doing business domestically, but also, with a little good faith on the part of the U.S. administration, for those doing business with American buyers.

I just want to point out here that the U.S. Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act was adopted in the 1930s, so it is high time we adopted a similar mechanism.

I hope you will agree with me, Mr. Speaker, especially since you are my MP during House sitting weeks. I live in your riding while we are working here in Parliament. I hope you will hear my plea.

Over the course of many Parliaments, many committees have recommended implementing just such a measure. The Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food, which studied the bill, sent it back to the House without amendment. The committee approved it, with support from all the parties. Action on this is long overdue.

Before concluding, I want to make an aside and draw the House's attention to another issue related to food products and the difficulties that certain players in the supply chain may experience when a buyer goes bankrupt.

In my riding, there is a storage company that found itself in a difficult situation a few months ago. This company provides refrigeration and freezer services and serves as an intermediary in the transportation of perishable goods. After one of its clients went bankrupt, a bakery, the company ended up stuck with about 800 pallets of pies that did not belong to it. Since the bakery in question was under the authority of a trustee in bankruptcy at the time, the storage company could not dispose of the pies in any way. The situation went on for several weeks, causing major financial losses for the storage company since it could not get any income from the merchandise in question and it could not take on other contracts because the cargo was taking up half of its warehouse. The bakery finally hired a company to transport the stored merchandise, but that company was never paid for services rendered. The transportation company then turned to the intermediary, the storage company, for compensation for its losses, which put the storage company's financial viability at great risk.

At that point, I wrote a letter to the Minister of Transport and his parliamentary secretary. That was before the cabinet shuffle. The letter was cosigned by the Bloc Québécois transport critic, the member for Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères. We felt that the intermediary was also a victim of the situation, and we asked the minister to consider including a provision in the Bills of Lading Act that would protect intermediaries responsible for goods in specific cases involving bankruptcy of the original business. Such situations become even trickier when perishable goods are involved, and I would like to take this opportunity to get everyone thinking about this issue.

In closing, to get back to the subject of my speech, let us pass this bill without delay, as its co-sponsor entreated us.

[The Speaker, Greg Fergus]

Before we resume debate, I want to let the member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot know that I am proud to be his MP.

The hon. member for Port Moody—Coquitlam.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Mr. Speaker, New Democrats support this bill and want to see it advance.

This bill has already been the subject of many committee studies. My colleague from Cowichan—Malahat—Langford said recently that he has almost lost count of how many times, at different committees in different Parliaments, the bill has been considered. He went on to say that we have seen a recommendation for this type of measure to be enacted by the House of Commons.

The time is now. My NDP colleagues and I would like to see this bill pass through third reading to get to the Senate and start getting the traction it needs.

The Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada, the Canadian Produce Marketing Association, and the thousands of people they represent want that too. They are waiting for action. I reiterate the news from the member for Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, as well as the NDP caucus, that we look forward to the bill's speedy passage to the other place. We hope that it finds its way to the Governor General's desk to receive the royal assent quickly, because climate change is not waiting for government process.

Climate change is affecting growing seasons, shipping times and supply chains. It is contributing to Canada's ongoing infrastructure deficit. During the drastic flooding in B.C. due to an atmospheric river, B.C. got a first-hand view of how fragile Canadian supply chains are, because they rely on open roads, railways and ports. Let us add the black swan event of the global pandemic to supply chain challenges. Such black swan events are coming more often.

Since the start of the pandemic, it has been more difficult to transport goods, especially fresh fruits and vegetables, which have short lifespans and need just-in-time logistics. With small profit margins, alongside big impacts on food security, any wasting of food directly affects the bottom line of farmers and producers, and it limits how we get food on tables.

Many farmers in Canada are feeling the stresses of trying to make ends meet in this volatile business. They feel the pressure of feeding not only Canadians but also the world. Right now, the government does not have their backs when something out of their control affects their bottom line.

In Canada, we depend on farmers and producers to feed our communities. Food sovereignty is a life-or-death business, and we cannot leave farmers and producers without a safety net if we are serious about protecting food sovereignty in this country.

The fresh fruit and vegetable industry has been calling for support to prevent farms from going bankrupt because of the lack of protection. In the supply chain specifically, it would be very beneficial. Supply chains are becoming more and more unreliable because of climate change.

Food loss because of supply chain limitations cannot happen fully on the backs of those who grow and produce our food. We need farmers and producers to thrive so that people can eat healthy, affordable food. Food spoilage is not only incredibly expensive, but it is also harmful to the environment. It contributes to climate change. Farmers and producers need protection from that. The Liberal government needs to get serious about helping farmers reduce wasted food and recover from any losses that are out of their control.

Food waste alone increases carbon dioxide and biomethane emissions, contributing to a warming planet. With more droughts, fires and floods, farmers and producers become more susceptible to these events. It is more challenging to get food from farm to table. Producers, suppliers and retailers must all be supported and encouraged to help get food to tables. However, let us get back to the bill.

Farmers and producers of fresh fruit and vegetables are taking incredible risks and hits to their viability, with an increased risk of filing for bankruptcy. For example, Canadian producers and growers selling to markets in the United States once had equal access to payment protection under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. Since 2014, however, they have not been allowed to file a formal claim under PACA until after they post a bond of double the value of their original shipment. This is an expensive, risky ask when product shipments can be delayed and affected by many different points of the supply chain.

In addition, let us talk about the risks of natural water resources in Canada becoming scarcer. The amount of water and the number of water restrictions are putting a strain on farmers and producers, adding costs and risks to their businesses. They need government support as they deal with these mounting risks.

New Democrats have supported and will continue to support farmers and producers. In 2015, the New Democrats' federal election platform promised to “introduce a payment protection program for produce growers”, and we mean it, among other measures to keep farms in their stewards' hands and to allow those businesses to make the money they deserve. Protection for our farmers is critical.

Canadian farmers are essential workers. During the pandemic, they continued to work to keep our stores supplied. As large grocery store chains continued to make record profits, they downloaded costs and risks to their suppliers. Farmers and producers suffered, with no legislated support. That lack of a safety net needs to be corrected.

I will close by saying this bill is imperative to reduce the risk for farmers and producers and to assist them in remaining viable. As climate change continues to negatively impact food security and food sovereignty, we need our farmers.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Mr. Speaker, before I get started in speaking to this great bill, I really want to pass on that today is a very special day for our family. Today is my 38th anniversary. Hello to Leigh, wherever she is watching me.

I rise to speak to Bill C-280, the financial protection for fresh fruit and vegetable farmers act. I want to thank my colleague from York—Simcoe for introducing this piece of legislation in Parliament. I know that the member for York—Simcoe represents Holland Marsh, which is known as the soup and salad bowl of Canada. The reality is that Bill C-280 would not only be support for fruit and vegetable growers and producers in this region but also all across Canada. That is why I am so excited to support this bill today.

As a former farmer myself, I know that farming is not just a business, but it is a way of life for many Canadian families from coast to coast. This way of life is not an easy one. There are significant risks and uncertainties that farm families take on every year to grow food that feeds the world. Producers face many uncertainties every year, including unpredictable commodity prices, Mother Nature and the ability to obtain revenue for their product. Producers are forced to work within a very limited growing cycle and one bad year could put the family farm business at risk.

One of the most significant things that can impact a producer is when a purchaser of their product declares bankruptcy. When a buyer declares bankruptcy, the impacts to the producer can be devastating. Many of the farmers I represent are grain, pulse and cattle farmers. While this bill would not directly impact them, they understand the importance of protecting producers from the insolvency of businesses that purchase their product.

When I was a young farmer, a few years ago, I was in a situation where our local grain buyer became insolvent. The situation was made worse for our farm and others in the area because the insolvent party was not only buying our product but was also selling us inputs for the next year's crop. Preventable moments like this put undue stress on family farm businesses. Because of the seasonal nature of farming, farmers plan months and years in advance to keep their businesses operating.

Therefore, when a buyer who is the main purchaser in an area suddenly goes insolvent, this puts undue stress on the entire area. By the way, we are talking about an area the size of P.E.I. That is how big the purchaser of our product was and it did take down the whole region. I am sure members can imagine the uncertainty for this entire area and the undue stress it would have put on farm families. Pricing everything else accordingly while simultaneously tracking inputs so that a farmer can maintain a cost coverage to keep profitable is enough of a challenge. Adding bankruptcy, an entirely separate issue, to the equation can create a whole range of complications, crippling farmers without warning.

The way the value chain is designed, it requires the farmer to have a buyer and contracts in place before they even step into the field. That means they need to enter negotiations on how much they will sell their pound of product for, without any guarantee that they will grow a crop. That means the Canadian farmer is forced to be all in. They can do everything right. They can get the product to the buyer's doors and then not get paid for the product. It is a devastating blow for anyone when they do not get paid for the hard work they do every day. While the current mechanisms within the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act may be suitable for the wider agriculture industry and other sectors, the current approach does not work when fresh produce buyers become insolvent.

Fruits and vegetables are perishable. The shelf life of these products is not long. This is why the risk of the buyer becoming insolvent is so much more devastating to fruit and vegetable producers. Their products can rarely be recovered because they will have already spoiled. Without the ability to recover the product or access current mechanisms in the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, fruit and vegetable producers can face a significant loss that could very easily put them out of business. Imagine the effect this would have on a producer's insurance, their farm and their family. There are only so many hits one can take before the ship starts to sink.

The uncertainty of producers not being paid for their products is very real, but it is also avoidable if we pass this bill into law. Members do not need to just take my word for why this legislation is needed. They can listen to the Canadian fruit and vegetable producers who have rallied behind Bill C-280 in support.

Jan VanderHout, the president of the Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada, stated that this will have a very positive impact on our national food supply, lowering cost to consumers.

The chair of the Canadian Produce Marketing Association stated that, for too long, Canadian produce growers and sellers have shouldered the financial risk when selling their products. The challenges of the pandemic and the massive increases in costs they have experienced over the past few years have put many in an even more vulnerable position. He hopes that all members of Parliament will vote in favour of this important piece of legislation to support the long-term viability of their sector and send a message to their growers and sellers that we have their backs.

While I said there are reasonable protections for producers, there is a lack of protection for them within the banking industry itself. I believe that too often business people, with no understanding of how the agriculture industry operates, undertake uncalculated risks that could undermine the survival of the farms they do business with. That is why I am so grateful to my colleague for bringing this bill forward in the House of Commons and why I am so proudly supporting it.

As a lifelong farmer, I know that many farmers have faced challenges where they wished there was a mechanism in place to protect from the devastation of an insolvent buyer. It would allow producers to have more protection from the buyers who hold their very livelihoods in their hands. Bill C-280 would build that certainty into the financial landscape. This increased certainty would allow for reduced produce costs that could be passed on to the grocery cart of Canadians. With food inflation limiting how many fresh fruits and vegetables Canadians can afford, reduced costs are needed now more than ever.

This bill is a practical solution to a very serious problem. Farmers should not have to fear being shortchanged when their buyer goes insolvent. It is a common sense approach for the common people who feed our country and the world. The bottom line is that our agriculture producers need to get paid for what they grow. Anytime that system breaks down, the stabilization of the entire food supply is at risk. If we do not pass this bill, we are continuing to set up our fruit and vegetable producers for failure.

Now, more than ever, it is critically important that we send this very clear signal to our agriculture producers across the country. The NDP-Liberal government has neglected farmers for far too long. By passing Bill C-280, it has a chance to stand with Canadian producers for once.

In closing, I want to mention that one of Canada's newest vegetable producers, Vermillion Growers, earlier this year opened a state-of-the-art tomato greenhouse in Dauphin, Manitoba. The folks at Vermillion Growers are working tirelessly to become a leader in growing fresh, local produce that will feed Canadians across the country.

I am very fortunate to represent this new business in Parliament, and I know that Bill C-280 will support local growers just like them. I hope all members in the House will support Canadian fruit and vegetable producers by passing Bill C-280.