Evidence of meeting #17 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was kvd.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:55 p.m.
Professor, Plant Sciences Department, University of Saskatchewan
It's only used in western Canada.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gerry Ritz
Thank you so much to the presenters and the questioners.
Just hang on, folks. The meeting will suspend for a bit. We'll go in camera to discuss our calendar. Does everybody have a copy of it now? We have a bit of housekeeping to do.
I would ask everybody else to vacate the room. We'll do that, and then we'll be on to the rest of our duties.
Thank you so much again, folks.
[Proceedings continue in camera]
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gerry Ritz
This meeting is back in session again. Let's start it off with a discussion about the witnesses we've heard to date on the CGC report, the Compas report, and so on. I will instruct the researchers and the clerk to give us a rough draft of a report for us during the break week.
They will have it in our hands Monday or Tuesday of the week following, and then we can add to the end of one meeting to discuss what we like, what we don't like, and so on. Unless you want a specific meeting on that report, we'll maybe catch it at the end of the Tuesday or the Wednesday meeting and just discuss it quickly. If we feel we need a full meeting on that, then we'll work one into the system. Is that reasonable?
Yes, Mr. Easter.
1 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
I can't imagine we won't need a full meeting, Mr. Chair. We'll see what the researchers have to say, but there were a lot of good witnesses.
1 p.m.
Conservative
1 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
I really think we should have heard from some people who do the work on the ground, who actually do the grading. Donna Welke was an assistant commissioner, and there was Bob Douglas, I believe. It would have been useful to have them. I thought we called them in, but I don't know.
In any event, that's the only thing I have to say. I don't think we've heard from those on the practical side, on the ground, enough yet, but let's go with what we have here.
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gerry Ritz
All right. Let's have a look at the rough draft and then decide. If we want to carry on, we can. Fair enough? Good.
The next thing is that we have copies in both official languages of the Charlton email. We had agreed to do that at the last meeting, and we're basically on hold because she's not available until the 13th. Mr. Easter said that was okay, that he could work with that. So this is just for your information.
Now we're onto Mr. Atamanenko's motion. Do you want to speak to that, Alex?
1 p.m.
NDP
Alex Atamanenko NDP British Columbia Southern Interior, BC
Yes. As you can see, it's an examination of the various links in the food chain, of the profits, and of how much is being made. I think it's timely to do that, because we're in the process of reviewing and studying a long-term policy.
This is a general motion. We can look at the specifics, in fact. We can decide who to pull in to have a look. But I think in light of the crisis in agriculture and the primary producer, it's important to start examining this. That's what the motion is about.
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gerry Ritz
You're just talking production and processing, not wholesale and retail, not the other end?
1 p.m.
NDP
Alex Atamanenko NDP British Columbia Southern Interior, BC
Probably if we wanted to include processing, we could, but this is about how it's....
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gerry Ritz
Okay, so you have the motion there now, and you're suggesting we take this on in November as part of....
1 p.m.
Conservative
1 p.m.
Liberal
Robert Thibault Liberal West Nova, NS
We went earlier. I don't disagree that this is valuable work, but earlier we looked together at what we wanted to study and tried to get the list in our schedule going.
It seems to me it's only logical that we only jump from that schedule in an emergency situation, if we missed something that was very important. For instance, if a BSE crisis just started, then you'd have something absolutely urgent and you would have to jump.
When I look at this, I think it's a valuable point, but this is a year's study. It's almost impossible to do this without looking at the retail, the distribution, the wholesale, the whole thing. It's very involved by the time we do that, and my only concern is where it goes.
I'm very interested in looking at this farm income problem and the CAIS program and improvements to it. All of these things to me are quite relevant. If we put this ahead of that, I don't think we'll get any of it finished by the end of the year.
1:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gerry Ritz
The clerk is just reminding me, too, that on our calender, where we have all of November mapped out, under the first Tuesday we do have one heading “Concentration in the agri-food wholesale/retail sectors”. That was a point somebody brought up, and that's the other end of your study, Alex.
And I don't disagree with you, Mr. Thibault.
Mr. Anderson, go ahead, please.
1:05 p.m.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
I don't think we would have a major problem with doing something along these lines, but I would agree with Mr. Thibault. I think the steering committee has given us the agenda for a couple of months.
We have a couple of meetings in December if Alex wanted to try to slot this in there. But I agree with you, this is a huge subject, and how long are we going to spend at it? The CGC review has taken four or six of our meetings now. How many meetings do we want to put into this, and how much work are we going to commit to it? It's actually not time-sensitive anyway. It may be something that we focus on in the spring.
1:05 p.m.
Conservative
1:05 p.m.
Bloc
André Bellavance Bloc Richmond—Arthabaska, QC
Yes, that is sort of what I was going to say. It's really a question of scheduling, because we certainly don't disagree with the subject matter per se, just as we agree on the other motions Alex has tabled.
We could have talked about this when we did our scheduling at the beginning of the session. I'm also wondering when we might be able to deal with a subject like this, which is super important, and there must surely be some sittings left that we could devote to dealing partly with this subject.
I don't know whether Alex is prepared to look at possible accommodations, if we go with the whole issue. On the other hand, we shouldn't forget that this is a minority government and that it may not stay in office for long.
Basically, my question has to do with the time available.
1:05 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Miller Conservative Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON
As far as the intent of Alex's motion, I'm in full support, but what I'd like to see, Alex, is kind of a strategy, or your thoughts on how you plan to carry this out. It is a long process. I don't know whether you want to comment on it in a couple of minutes, Mr. Chairman.
1:05 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Miller Conservative Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON
It's there, but as André said, we have a hundred other things to do as well, and to fit it in....
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
I agree with the intent of the motion, but as everyone else has said, I don't know how we can fit it in at this time. I think we need to fit it in later.
We don't want to overload them, but if we could direct the Library of Parliament to come up with a preliminary paper on the changing ownership, control, and so on, basically along the lines of this, it would give us a starting point. Some of that work is already done, I know, in seeing some of Jean-Denis' work. It may not be a lot of work. We're out of here next week and out of their hair.