Evidence of meeting #37 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 srm.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Conservative
The Clerk of the Committee
We already have the first amendment. It's in the minutes from the previous meeting.
The Clerk
It will all be as one:
Mr. Fulton's comments reflect his opinion but are no more relevant than any other witness, several of whom told us that they need marketing choice in order to maximize their returns. Many of them have expressed a belief that there is a place for a viable voluntary CWB. In fact, the direction of the whole task force report is to give suggestions on how we can move toward a system under which a voluntary Wheat Board would operate.
While some growers have expressed concern over whether the CWB can survive as a voluntary barley marketing agency, they need not. The CWB has successfully done this before. In the summer of 1993 farmers were free to market their barley directly to the U.S. or through the CWB. The CWB made a number of changes and successfully participated in the market.
The final amendment would be to change the recommendations, particularly the first recommendation:
That the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food be commended for his balanced choice of plebiscite questions.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
The recommendation would replace both one and two. The copy we have here does not have the full paragraph I read into the record the other day as part of the amendment.
Conservative
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
That's fine, as long as everybody understands that.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
Yes. There was also the amendment that came up last Tuesday.
(Amendment negatived)
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
We're back to Mr. Easter's original motion.
(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Excuse me, Mr. Chair. We'll be filing a minority report. I want to make that clear so there is no question about it.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
On that point, there are certain deadlines on filing a minority report. We would certainly expect that the minority report would be prepared within a couple of days.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
There's other point. We let this slide last time but we're not going to this time. The clerk can correct me if I'm wrong, but under parliamentary rules the minority report should not be longer than the majority report. We'll expect the chair to ensure that.
Conservative
The Clerk
It's an understanding, Mr. Easter, but I believe there are several committee reports that have ended up with dissenting opinions that are longer than the original report.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
Let's stick to the understanding. We're making that request as a committee.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
We'll ask Mr. Anderson to put together that minority report in the time limits adhered to by Parliament.
We'll suspend until our witnesses come to the table.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
I call the meeting back to order.
Welcome to the table. We have Kathleen Sullivan from the Animal Nutrition Association of Canada. From the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, we have Dennis Laycraft and Brad Wildeman. We have Jim Laws from the Canadian Meat Council. We also have Kevin Golding from Maple Leaf Foods Inc.
We're discussing the SRM regulations that are coming into effect in July. We welcome your comments and remind all witnesses to keep their comments as brief as possible so we can have a good exchange of questions in the rest of the meeting.
With that, I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Sullivan.
Kathleen Sullivan Executive Director, Animal Nutrition Association of Canada
Thank you very much.
Good afternoon. I'm Kathleen Sullivan, the general manager of the Animal Nutrition Association of Canada.
ANAC is the trade association that represents manufacturers of livestock and poultry feeds across the country. Our members represent approximately 90% of the commercial feed manufactured in this country. We also own and operate the feed industry's HACCP program, FeedAssure. FeedAssure is a feed safety certification program that was developed specifically for the Canadian feed industry. It was the first feed industry HACCP program in North America, and one of the first in the world.
We very much appreciate the opportunity to meet with you today to provide feedback on the status of the enhanced feed ban that is scheduled for implementation this coming July 12.
In 1997 Canada introduced its first feed ban, a set of regulations that ban the use of ruminant meat and bone meal in all ruminant feeds. Last summer the Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced new regulations that would expand on that and ban specified risk material, dead stock, and downer cattle in all animal feed, including pet food, and in fertilizer. These changes are designed to provide additional controls against BSE by addressing the risks associated with ruminants inadvertently being exposed to materials that contain ruminant meat and bonemeal.
ANAC supports the enhanced feed ban. We believe quite strongly that a full ban is the simplest and most workable solution to further address the risk of cross-contamination in feed mills, and the only way to eliminate the risk of cross-contamination on farms.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
Ms. Sullivan, can I ask that you slow down your tempo a little so the interpreters can keep up with you? I'd appreciate that very much.
Executive Director, Animal Nutrition Association of Canada
My apologies.
We have been pleased to work with our industry partners and also with government officials on this initiative.
Throughout this process, ANAC has been a leader in its support for the new ban, and we will continue to be leaders in ensuring that the ban is implemented by July 12 of this year. In mid-March, for example, ANAC will launch a new website that features a communication campaign for commercial feed mills, educating them on the enhanced ban and reminding them of their commitments under the original 1997 regulations. Our material will include an educational component as well as interpretation bulletins on technical aspects of the new regulations. We hope this will be of use to our suppliers and also, very importantly, to our customers.
Through this enhanced feed ban, Canada has signalled its intent to eradicate BSE in as short a time as possible, and it is therefore imperative that the government and industry stand by the July 12 commitment. Having said that, it's also very important that this committee be aware of the extraordinary challenges that lie before this industry--and my colleagues here--and also government between now and July 12.
The enhanced feed ban is, in short, an immensely complicated initiative. It requires the active participation of the federal and all provincial governments across this country. That includes CFIA and Agriculture Canada and also the provincial ministries of agriculture, environment, and in some cases even health. It also requires a very high level of federal and provincial coordination, particularly in the areas of financial and other supports to industry.
The new regulations will also affect many different sectors: cattle producers, dead stock collectors, renderers, packers, feed manufacturers, fertilizer manufacturers, and the list really does go on.
In order to segregate SRM, as required under the new regulation, packers and renderers will need to invest in and execute significant infrastructure changes to their organizations. In addition, the ban will create the extraordinary challenge of addressing SRM disposal, as I'm sure many of you have already heard before. SRM will essentially, after July 12, have no value, but it will require that industry and government create and execute an effective disposal system.
In addition to making infrastructure changes and changes to procedures in virtually all industries, industries will also need to coordinate the timing of their respective activities to ensure that SRM is completely out of the supply chain by July 12. This is a very important point. If we want SRM off farms by July 12, we need it out of feed mills well in advance of this date, and this in turn will require that packers begin segregating SRM earlier still. All of this will need to be coordinated largely on a voluntary basis, because the regulations really come into effect for every industry on that July 12 deadline.
Recognizing these challenges, the Canadian Meat Council and ANAC commissioned a situation report on the enhanced feed ban, which I believe the Meat Council has tabled with the committee. This report was developed with input also from the Canadian Cattlemen's Association and the major rendering companies, including Rothsay, which is represented here today.
The report describes the practical realities of the feed ban, including the range of issues that need to be managed by July 12. First and foremost, the report recognizes the need for a staged implementation of the ban. For planning purposes, we have collectively recommended that SRM-free meat and bone meal be available for sale to feed mills by May 1 of this year. This will allow 11 weeks for SRM to clear through the supply chain and be cleared off farms. But this also means that packers and renderers and all disposal solutions need to be sorted out and in place before May 1, which is less than 11 weeks from today.
I want to be clear that we stand ready to do what is necessary to meet July 12. But it is impossible for industry to meet the deadline without swift government action to provide the necessary support. The situation report that we've prepared outlines the need for action in four key areas.
First is the confirmation and delivery of capital funding for plant equipment and transportation. For plants to build the infrastructure to segregate SRM, significant capital investment is required. In 2006 the federal government confirmed $80 million as part of a federal-provincial cost sharing agreement, but to date none of that money has flowed to industry in any province. Given the time needed for equipment to be ordered and infrastructure changes to be made, that funding needs to be delivered as soon as possible.
Second, we require clarification around specific regulatory and technical criteria in all the industries affected by the regulation. To adopt the procedures and requirements in the new ban, all our industries require some clarification from CFIA, and it's critical that we have that in place as soon as possible, so we can begin implementing the ban as effectively as possible.
Third, we still need to sort out short- and long-term solutions for SRM disposal. Disposal capabilities may very well be the biggest challenge in implementing the new ban. It will take time to build and to permit the permanent disposal infrastructure. Given this, there's no doubt that short-term or transitional measures will have to be put in place by July 12 and even before that, for May 1. Beyond the short term, we will also need to work together, industry and government, to identify long-term alternatives for disposal of this material.
Finally, we need to clarify short- and long-term support for disposal operating costs. Even if disposal options are available, we do anticipate that the cost will be prohibitive and will certainly have a significant impact on small processors and on dead stock pickup. To effectively achieve SRM disposal and keep the processing sector viable, it may be necessary to subsidize a portion of these costs.
A report was delivered to the Minister of Agriculture, to Agriculture Canada, to CFIA, and to every province across the country in early November. Since then we have seen a great deal of movement. We were very encouraged that in late 2006 CFIA established a task force to oversee coordination of the enhanced feed ban. We view this as a very positive development and we commend CFIA president and senior vice-presidents for taking leadership on this file.
Under the task force chair, Freeman Libby, the task force has set out a clear workplan and a plan for overseeing the ban and for coordinating with provinces and with industry. While ANAC is confident in the task force's ability, it's also clear that time is working against them. Even today, none of the federal-provincial funding agreements have been signed that we're aware of, and only one province, Alberta, has confirmed the details of its capital support program to industry. This makes it challenging for industry to implement the necessary permanent changes, particularly around SRM disposal.
It is increasingly clear that permanent SRM disposal infrastructure will not be in place across the country on July 12, let alone May 1, when we expect feed companies to stop purchasing the product, and if SRM-free material is not available on May 1, many feed mills will just stop using meat and bone meal altogether, making the disposal issues even more complicated. On July 12, feed mills will have no choice, obviously, but to stop using the product.
We're particularly concerned that SRM segregation and disposal must be made a priority, and if SRM disposal systems are not put in place, the entire feed ban will be placed in jeopardy.
Thank you very much.
Jim Laws Executive Director, Canadian Meat Council
Good afternoon, and thank you very much.
My name is Jim Laws, and I'm the executive director of the Canadian Meat Council here in Ottawa.
The Meat Council is Canada's national trade association of federally inspected meat packers and processors, established in 1919. The red meat processing and packing industry of beef, veal, pork, and lamb is the largest food processing industry in Canada, with total sales of $15 billion. Our industry employs over 45,000 people and is a major exporter of Canadian food products.
Our beef slaughter members include both large and smaller companies such as XL Foods, Cargill, Tyson, St. Helen's, Ranchers Beef, Levinoff-Colbex , Abattoires Z. Billette, Gencor, Delft Blue/Écolait, and Bellivo Transformation. They have invested millions of dollars in expanding slaughter capacity since BSE by almost 45%, from 75,000 to almost 110,000 cattle per week.
These companies, which represent almost 95% of the beef processed in Canada, are all federally inspected under the Meat Inspection Act of Canada. Veterinarians and inspectors are present in all establishments, and they follow strict rules under the meat inspection regulations and the manual procedures. Strict quality control measures are followed to provide safe and wholesome meat products to Canadians.
The Government of Canada published its proposed ruminant feed ban rules in the Gazette part I in December 2004. At that time the Canadian Meat Council and our Canadian Cattlemen's Association colleagues expressed our concerns that the proposals to amend the ruminant feed ban were not in step with those proposed by the United States. Specifically, Canada proposed the removal of all specified risk materials from animal feed, whereas the United States proposed a shorter list of risk materials to remove from older animals and from dead animals.
On June 26, 2006, Canada announced that it would indeed go forward with the full list of specified risk materials banned from all animal feed by July 12. The government also announced that it set aside $80 million to work with the provinces to assist industry's implementation of the plan. As of today, the United States of America has not yet published its final rule.
For animals less than 30 months of age, in terms of specified risk material, this can mean as little as two to three kilograms of specified risk material, the weight of a distal ileum. For animals greater than 30 months of age, the total weight of specified risk material can be as high as 40 kilograms per animal. The estimates vary widely based on factors such as the weight of the cattle and the ability of the packer to extract SRM with minimal additional tissue.
With over three and a half million head of cattle slaughtered every year in Canada and the capacity to kill over five million head, the volume of SRM that needs to be segregated and disposed of in an environmentally safe fashion is staggering. This involves a lot of commitment from the industry in terms of considerable changes in plant infrastructure, purchase of dedicated trucks, and investment in short-term and long-term disposal options for raw and rendered specified risk material.
The Canadian Meat Council members are very concerned that seven months have passed since the announcement of the new rules and only one province has announced the details of its program funding criteria. We had hoped the provinces would contribute an additional $50 million under fed-prov 60-40 funding agreements for this important animal health initiative that the meat processing sector is faced with, bringing the total funding to $130 million.
Beef and veal slaughterers and meat processors have their plans ready to segregate and stain ruminant specified risk material, but because of the considerable dollars that are required to be invested in the required plant and equipment, we have been waiting for the funding details from the provinces prior to committing to any plant improvements.
We have been working closely with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on the specific rules and processes required to make changes to the manual procedures that will guide and direct our actions to slaughter and process in our facilities. We want to be ready and have all of our process-related questions answered to ensure a smooth transition to the new rules. We also want to clarify those processes to minimize the amount of material that is discarded along with the specified risk material, such as removing the distal ileum only, rather than the entire small intestine.
As Kathleen mentioned, we are very committed to meeting the regulatory deadline of July 12 to segregate specified risk material from the feed supply. The study we circulated to you earlier this week clearly indicates that we need to be ready to supply the feed mills. It indicates to us that we need to be ready by May 1. Our study indicated that full details of the program should have been made available to us by November 30, 2006, in order to make this deadline. Those ruminant feed ban enhancements that removed specified risk material required immediate action, as Kathleen mentioned--capital funding for plant and equipment; clarification on the rules, which have largely been clarified with the CFIA; immediate and long-term solutions for disposal facilities; and disposal operating costs.
As far as we're concerned, this is an extremely serious issue facing the industry. Many countries are expecting Canada to fully implement its ruminant feed ban enhancements by July 2007. Our BSE status at the OIE depends on it. We have already lived through the devastating impacts of closed borders and lost markets due to BSE, which cost our industry hundreds of millions of dollars.
We believe advocating for a delay in the implementation of July 12 is not an option for the Canadian beef industry. Standing back and doing nothing is not an option for the Canadian Meat Council. Most importantly, we must also fulfill the expectations of our customers.
We have sent a letter to the Minister of Agriculture expressing our concerns and requesting a two-year contingency plan that addresses the short- and medium-term disposal options for raw and rendered specified risk material. We have asked to meet with his staff as soon as possible to discuss this issue so that Canada can successfully meet its international obligations and our beef industry can comply with the July 12 deadline.
For example, we understand that some provinces currently are not fully engaged in discussions with the federal government, and claim they cannot participate in, or are not happy with, the funding they have received. We've been told that the funding must go through the provinces. The fact that there are different rules and eligibility criteria in each of the provinces causes us great concern. Ideally there should be one common set of rules applying to all companies across Canada.
Currently these slaughter byproducts are collected by renderers for meat and bone meal. After the feed ban there will be additional costs for disposal. Our options are very limited to us today, including raw SRM disposal. With funding not available through the provinces, the industry is truly in limbo.
With the United States considering opening their doors for Canadian cattle born after March 1999, and with no requirement to dispose of SRM in the United States, chances are that many cattle will go south, putting many packers at a competitive disadvantage. With the July 12 deadline fast approaching and options for SRM disposal being limited, some packers may be faced with having to reduce their slaughter rate to comply with these regulations.
We request that the Government of Canada and the provinces expedite the funding criteria for the $80 million and the $50 million provincial money, as originally allocated for this purpose, so that the industry can move ahead with implementing the regulations in time and with minimum disruption to the marketplace.
Thank you very much.
