Mr. Dobson.
Evidence of meeting #49 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 need.
Evidence of meeting #49 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 need.
Noon
President, Wild Rose Agricultural Producers
Mr. Thompson, thanks for the question about producer ownership. It's unfortunate that I don't have another two hours to answer that particular question. We need to think bigger, not smaller, on the farm ownership thing. We need coordination. We saw exactly what happened with the idea of producer-owned packing plants. We had a hundred different initiatives all over Canada. You toss out a bit of money and they do a feasibility study. The money goes to consultants more than anything, with no coordination on what you're really going to get in the end.
In this province we could own the biodiesel industry if we all got together and had a larger initiative. It really boils down to bucks and coordination.
I know of an ethanol plant in Ontario that took five years to raise enough capital just to get off the ground.
I live by Lloydminster. They announced that they were going to build an ethanol plant there and started construction right away. Raising capital is a huge issue, and you've got to be committed to it. If you really want to see it happen, you can make it happen.
Noon
Conservative
Noon
Liberal
Charles Hubbard Liberal Miramichi, NB
Thank you, Chair.
First, I have a general question. We put a lot of money into federal programs. Do you get benefits from them? Are they significant, or is a lot of it smoke and mirrors? We announce millions and billions of dollars. Do they really get down to the level of the producers who could benefit from them?
Let's go to barley, first of all. How does your group benefit from federal programs?
Noon
Policy and Research Coordinator, Alberta Barley Commission
We certainly benefit. I think what I was here to talk about today was the future of BRMs. As they are today, there is some help, but when I talked about it before, there's this need versus entitlement.
Noon
Policy and Research Coordinator, Alberta Barley Commission
I'm not a barley farmer; I'm a beef cattle farmer, but—
Noon
Liberal
Charles Hubbard Liberal Miramichi, NB
We have to be careful here, Mr. Chair.
I thought you came here saying you represented 17,000 barley farmers.
Noon
Policy and Research Coordinator, Alberta Barley Commission
That's where I work; that's not what I do. Well, it is what I do—
Noon
Liberal
Charles Hubbard Liberal Miramichi, NB
You must know enough about your industry to tell us. Are the advanced payments for planting—?
Noon
Policy and Research Coordinator, Alberta Barley Commission
They do, but as was discussed earlier, when the margins go down every year and when the basis goes down every year, and you look back and you see that suddenly you're not falling as far as you did.... When there are big spikes, that's when it helps the most, but when it's coming down year after year—
Noon
Executive Director, Canadian Animal Health Coalition
If your comment was directed primarily to business risk management, I don't have an answer for that one. That is where a ton of the money does wind up going. But if we look at some of the agricultural crises that have occurred in this country in the last few years, some of them—a few of them—have been animal health related. Where does animal health fit within our federal Department of Agriculture?
That's my full-time job. I don't know who the lead is in the department right now. Is there a program that gives funding to assist the industry in enhancing its capabilities in that area? We're five years on. Unfortunately, as yet, it's not a recognized line item. We could do with your help in this area.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Charles Hubbard Liberal Miramichi, NB
So your concern really is that we look mainly at disasters, whether that be the avian problem or whether it be BSE, because we don't have a regular program to avoid some of these.
12:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Animal Health Coalition
Yes. We have a patchwork quilt. We don't have a strategic approach. We have identified that there are gaps in that patchwork quilt, and we don't have funding yet to deal with them.
12:05 p.m.
President, Wild Rose Agricultural Producers
I just want to say that I think the money that's put into agriculture is well spent. Whether it's all strategically going in the right direction, I'm not sure.
I was asked a question a few years ago by an MP at a reception. He said, “You know, we just gave you $1 billion. Why are you still complaining?” I muddled my way through the answer, but I have to admit I didn't really understand how big the industry was. I got home and I realized that the grain industry alone was $15 billion in receipts that year. We could double the price of grain and I still wouldn't have too much money. So I guess my point is that the amount of money you spend is big, but the industry is huge. It's all well received, and believe you me, we make good use of it.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Charles Hubbard Liberal Miramichi, NB
To go back to Dr. Landals, then, in terms of Health Canada, and the relationship between your group and Health Canada, is it significant enough, or is it a problem in terms of the two groups? Animal health and human health are very closely associated. It's under Health Canada, but do the two groups work closely enough together to determine the best outcome for Canadians?
12:05 p.m.
Director, Canadian Animal Health Coalition
I would say that the Public Health Agency of Canada, seeing as this is a relatively new process, is working more closely than it has in the past. There has been a clear history of having human health and then having all animal health, but I think we're getting closer together. There is a need to work more closely together and a need to recognize funding for projects, funding for laboratories, those types of things. There's a lot of in-common work that's done; they're not two separate programs. That certainly is an area where duplication could be a waste of resources.
We can always improve, but it's better than it used to be.
12:05 p.m.
Chairman, Alberta Pork
I'd like to answer the question of whether the money gets to me as a farmer. I'm going to talk on the hog side. I mentioned the fact that on the grain side and the beef side, it did come to me. On the hog side, the CAIS program definitely has assisted us, and I think that's good. I agree with Bill on the fact that $1 billion sounds like a lot of money, but, really, when you spread that out amongst everyone, when you have farm receipts of a couple of million dollars, what does a $2,000 cheque really change in my life? Those are issues. The dollars that Bill mentioned are really key.
On the health side, the hog side, we are working with the government right now on circovirus—and they recognize that there is an issue—but we need to be quicker on the draw on some of these issues. It has devastated the Canadian hog industry. The circovirus has totally killed some individuals, and two years later we're finally doing something about it.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
Thank you.
We have extended by ten minutes. We appreciate all of your interventions and your insight in helping us with our discussions and ongoing debate on the future of APF.
With that, we'll suspend for lunch, and we will take 50 minutes to an hour.
The meeting is adjourned.