It's written to the chair:
As you know, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and its member organizations are very much involved in the ongoing process to develop the next generation of Canadian agriculture policy. We strongly believe that development process must happen in partnership between government and industry, with the maximum possible amount of input and consultation from all partners in the industry. The next generation of agriculture policy is critical for the future success and sustainability of our industry.
CFA believes the work of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture has done a meeting with witnesses in Ottawa, and holding cross-country consultations is an important part of the process. The outcomes of those consultations will no doubt provide additional valuable input for the development of the new policy framework.
CFA is concerned that with the other issues before the committee and with reports in the media of a possible early end to the parliamentary session, the committee will not be able to prepare and table a report on its work this spring. The current government timetable will see the major work on the new policy framework taking place this spring and into the summer. If the committee's report is not released until the fall of the year, its ideas, conclusions, and recommendations will come too late to be included in the development process.
The CFA therefore strongly urges you and the members of the committee to make the next generation of agriculture a priority. We ask you to make your best effort to make sure your report is released in this parliamentary session, so that we can include and build on your work as we head into the most important phase of the development process. We believe it is in the best interests of Canadian farmers.
It's signed by Bob Friesen, president, Canadian Federation of Agriculture.
Mr. Chair, I bring this up because in the past, on at least two occasions, I've made the point to the committee that we needed to move quickly on this issue. I think it was probably last October or November when I first raised that and said I thought it was important that the committee begin to focus on this issue and get the APF hearings and consultations under way so that we could play an important part in giving the minister advice on the new programs. That did not happen, because it got derailed by a number of other issues through October, November, December.
When we came back after the Christmas break, I remember also urging the committee to do this as quickly as possible and to make sure that we have our APF consultations done, so that we once again could still have the ability to influence the APF conclusions that are being reached.
I'm afraid from what I'm seeing that we're going to find ourselves in the situation that our report is going to come out too late to have a major influence on the direction of the policy framework. Members opposite have brought forward a number of motions, and of course we're going to take time to debate those motions at the appropriate time. We think this is not the appropriate time, that it would be better for us right now to focus on the APF report, to work our way through its conclusions, and then, in that way, be able to have an influence on the government's decisions regarding the policy framework.
That's why I've brought this issue up, Mr. Chair. I think it's important that we continue to work on the report. I think it's important that we do that ahead of anything else. So I'm asking the members on both sides of the table to do that and to work with us to get this report done as quickly as possible. It would be unfortunate if we're going to focus on motions for the next two weeks in this committee when that's not necessary.