Evidence of meeting #51 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 saskatchewan.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
When you have said this at the consultation meetings held this winter, did you feel they were listening to you, and if CAIS didn't work, then they'd need to do something different?
President, Canadian Canola Growers Association
Yes, I think that's one thing. I don't know how you address it to make it fair to all farmers out there. I know we shouldn't be subsidizing farmers out there who are poor managers; that is going nowhere. Nowadays if you're not a good manager, you're not there.
If you look at crop production insurance over the last number of years, it has really fallen. If you go back to 2002, my yield has dropped four bushels because of 2002. The year 2002 was an abnormal year. It just doesn't happen. At least we don't think it happens; it did in 2002, but, in general it doesn't happen. My crop average should never have dropped by four bushels. If you go into Ontario, in their program they can only drop down to 70% of their long-term average, but here in Saskatchewan I dropped to zero that year on wheat, and that goes into my average. Basically I'm using a ten-year average on nine years of crop.
Those are some of the things you have to address on the production insurance side of this whole program.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
Yes, we heard that this morning.
Is there anybody else on the APF consultations?
Go ahead, Mark.
President, Canadian Bison Association
I was able to attend the business risk management consultations held in Calgary and then in Regina. I think the consensus was that it hasn't been working up to date, or certainly not working as effectively as it could be.
As to whether our voice is being heard, a lot of the very same comments in Calgary surfaced again in Regina. When we see what the final product's going to look like, maybe then we can make the decision as to whether our voice was heard.
One of the things that came out of there is there's a need—To try to develop a program that is going to fit across such a diverse industry as agriculture, which has so many different commodities and different regions, is pretty difficult. I think the message that came out of there is the need for a suite of programs tailored somewhat for individual enterprises or individual commodity sectors so that they might work better for them. Then you let the producers decide whether that's going to fit within their own operations, rather than trying to design a one-size-fits-all program.
General Manager, Saskatchewan Pork Development Board
I personally didn't go, but I know the industry was represented at them. We were told there was good consultation. Quite frankly, it's really important that we have days like today and consultations like that, because we'd like to have some input into various things.
What was the result of it? We'll wait and see.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
The other question I had coming out of today's discussion was on the biofuel strategy. I think, Neil, you said we want to have a win-win situation.
One thing there is going to be more of, especially on the prairies, is canola meal. Has there been work done on rations for ruminants and for the swine industry? I know it hasn't been usable yet to any degree in the swine business, but is there any research going into that? If we're going to have all this canola meal, it's going to be a natural resource that we're going to have.
Second, I think the comment was made that we also need higher-yielding feed wheats. We did a whole work on the Canadian Grain Commission on the KVD issue. Do you see that as being an impediment to having more of these high-yielding wheats that will help the ethanol industry and the feed industry? That's open to all of you as well.
Go ahead, Mr. Bacon.
President, Canadian Canola Growers Association
Basically, at the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission we're putting literally thousands of dollars into looking at ways to make a better canola meal—and not only a better canola meal: we're looking at developing varieties that produce more oil, so we will have less canola meal on the market.
There are some opportunities out there. Just look at the meal side, and pulling some of the special proteins out of those products to make it work. I think that's one of the areas in which the government still has to play a role; as producers put more dollars into research, the government seems to be wanting to pull back some of the research dollars. I think that's the wrong move; as producers put more into research, the government also has to be putting more dollars into research to make sure we get the best value we can out of some of these varieties.
In the development of wheats, the other problem we run into as producers is the KVD. It is a major problem. As we move forward, that's something that has to be addressed. I sit on the Western Grains Research Foundation, and there are varieties out there that I know will yield 20% better; they do not qualify to be licensed in Canada, yet they can be licensed in the States. That's just because of the KVD. It's one of the areas we have to address somewhere along the line if we're going to move ahead in the ethanol industry. If we don't, it's going to really hold back the ethanol industry, and basically down in the States they'll keep forging ahead.
General Manager, Saskatchewan Pork Development Board
Our industry values research to a very high degree, to the point that we put 30% of our gross income, or about $500,000 a year, into research of one sort or another. A lot of it goes as core funding to the Prairie Swine Centre.
With respect to canola meal, there's been a lot of work done on that already; more needs to continue, but it's a known quantity, with a pea-canola meal that would offset soybean meal.
On the ethanol side, though, it's really quite different. When you get into the ethanol, an awful lot of work needs to be done there because the byproduct is probably more suitable to the cattle industry right now than it is to the hog sector. There are limitations in terms of what we can use, so we need some breakthroughs there to figure that one out.
President, Canadian Bison Association
I think when it comes to feed stocks, it's a concern for our producers as well, and rising prices.
One of the problems that we do have, I think there are some opportunities in some of these byproducts from the bioenergy market that we could use. But we don't have the research money to put into it, and as a result we tend to rely a lot on research that has been done through the cattle industry, hoping that it's going to work for bison.
So I think it's important that if government is able to fund some of that research, those dollars are made available for small, growing sectors like ours, because we don't have the critical mass, and we don't necessarily have enough money on our own to do some of those research projects. That's one avenue, I think, the government could really assist in.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
I want to thank all of you for taking time out of your busy schedules to present to committee today and participate in the discussion. We'll use it in formulating our final report, and it will go back to the House of Commons.
With that, we will suspend for lunch.
We're adjourned.