Evidence of meeting #9 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendment.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3:40 p.m.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Mr. Chair, I was prepared to make an amendment--I had suggested that earlier--so I wasn't sure if that was accepted as an amendment or not.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
It is that the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food study Mr. Measner's severance and retirement package, as well as his last two years of salary and benefits, and that would include things like membership, salary, benefits, bonuses, health care, insurance coverage, and ongoing obligations that the board and the government would be expected to have towards Mr. Measner.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
Mr. Anderson, it's just so we have that for the clerk's information.
Members of the committee, the minister has arrived, and I understand we have 30 minutes. We're in the middle of this debate. Do we need a motion to adjourn the debate on this motion and then allow the minister at the table?
Mr. Easter.
3:45 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
Procedurally, Mr. Chair, I don't know whether it's a motion to adjourn or suspend the debate, but we want the unequivocal understanding from the chair that we will come back to this motion and Mr. Atamanenko's following the minister's presentation.
I will say that we're not too happy with half an hour with the minister when we should be having two.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
The way the motion should read is that we suspend debate while the minister is at the committee and that we will return to the amended motion upon the minister's leave of the table.
I need a mover and a seconder.
Okay, Ms. Skelton.
On this motion, Mr. Atamanenko.
3:45 p.m.
NDP
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
Mr. Ritz, please come to the table, if you would.
Mr. Atamanenko.
3:45 p.m.
NDP
Alex Atamanenko NDP British Columbia Southern Interior, BC
How much time will we have with the minister?
3:45 p.m.
Battlefords—Lloydminster Saskatchewan
Conservative
Gerry Ritz ConservativeMinister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
I have an hour. Well, I have a 45- to 50-minute presentation.
3:45 p.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
We have an hour with the minister.
We do appreciate your making the extreme effort to be with us today. I understand that our committee is unfortunately falling at a time when you have other cabinet duties. We do appreciate your taking time out of your hectic schedule to join us.
In light of only having an hour with the minister, if you guys are agreeable, we'll do five-minute rounds so that as many people as possible can get in.
Minister, please begin with your opening comments.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
Gerry Ritz Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's a pleasure to be here today. I'd actually have been here earlier, but Wayne said I couldn't come while he was in China, so we had to readjust our schedule.
I'm happy to be here. Let me say, it's great to be back at the committee. It's kind of funny being at this end of the table--
3:45 p.m.
An hon. member
You're talking too fast for translation.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
Gerry Ritz Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
You want me to go slower? Well, it's hard to be an auctioneer and get the job done at the same time.
3:45 p.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
Gerry Ritz Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
Sorry, guys. I apologize. I'll try to keep the jokes slower so you get them and can translate them properly.
It's great to be back here.
Jean-Denis and Jean-François, it's a pleasure to see you gentlemen again. We had some great times at that end of the table.
I certainly enjoyed my time with the committee. I think we got some very productive work done. It's a pleasure to appear before cabinet now and move ahead on things like the Grain Act, which we spent a lot of time on here, and discussions on the Wheat Board. I'm sure Mr. Easter will have questions on that shortly.
I've had a tremendous opportunity in my four months as minister--coming up within a couple of days here--to meet with just about every farm group across the country. There's been some tremendous input. I had my first face-to-face with the provincial ministers in Toronto in mid-November. We got agreement in principle on the new suite of programs moving ahead April 1, 2008. We also agreed on a transitional timeframe of up to one year to get the non-business risk side--the environmental farm plan, succession planning, that type of programming that's tied into the business risk management suite--in place as well, and those talks are going extremely well.
I had a tremendous opportunity--and Wayne was with me--to travel over to Rome and have a number of bilateral meetings with other countries to talk about agricultural trade. When we were coming back from that, the Russians followed us home and spent a couple of days here talking about livestock, dairy, beef, genetics, and innovative techniques. There have been some tremendous negotiations and discussions between our CFIA and their regulatory body there as to how we handle things like avian flu and the lessons learned from BSE, and those types of things.
We've developed a very good, respectful dialogue with our major trading partners. A case in point is the U.S. We've had some glitches at the border. There's been some extra testing required. We've been able to keep that to a minimum and actually have them lift that testing in a very short timeframe.
We are following up on our dialogue with the Canadian Wheat Board. We've had very respectful exchanges. We kept it below the media radar screen, and I think that's led us to some very forward thinking. There is still a tremendous optimism out there in western Canada that these changes will happen. Farmers are very intense businessmen, and they really analyze the market worldwide. They're seeing wheat above $10 in the U.S. They're seeing durum above $20 in the U.S. Of course, we're getting in the $6 to $11 range for our products. They're wondering why there is the discrepancy. We're working on that.
We've made some significant announcements for agriculture moving into the next phases of biofuels. I made those announcements early on. It is now within the Agriculture Canada mandate to move forward on the whole biofuels situation. We have announced the 10¢- and 20¢-per-litre subsidies that are available on ethanol and biodiesel respectively.
Livestock is a challenge at this time, and I'm certain we'll be facing some questions in the House of Commons, but please be assured that my officials and I have been actively engaged on both the pork and livestock files. We are reaching agreements on what we can do and how quickly we can do it. I do have ongoing meetings with the sector and ongoing meetings with my provincial counterparts as to what they feel they can do. The next one will be face to face with the pork council, meeting with my officials today and me tomorrow. I just recently had meetings with the livestock sector, the cattle industry in particular. We are seeing the opening of the U.S. border to older livestock. That is a very positive step. Having said that, of course, we are waiting with bated breath for the R-CALF injunction to be heard on December 19, and we'll have to see where that goes. We do have allies in the States on the R-CALF proposal, and we are making use of them at this time.
We have announced $600 million in new federal moneys that will be available to the livestock sector, and farmers as a whole, as early as January of the coming year. Very shortly before Christmas, everyone will get a letter as to what their portion of that $600 million will be, to give them an idea of what's coming. We are talking about targeted cash advances for the cattle and hog sector, and those discussions continue.
I have tasked my CFIA officials with coming up with--and I saw this in the draft of your report that will be coming forward on the livestock sector--the costs of the regulatory regime in Canada as compared to the U.S., our major trading partner. We are analyzing that to see what we can do on those files, as to where the discrepancies and disparities are. We will address that shortly.
We are looking at the cost of SRM removal and traceability. Those costs always end up at the farm gate, and how do we make sure that everyone who is sharing in the benefit shares in the cost? We will be doing some more work on that. There is a pool of money to address SRMs and try to get more value out of them.
A lot of the bilaterals and agreements that we will be doing as I travel over the next coming months. Barring a federal election, we are lined up to do Mexico, Cuba, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Russia, and so forth, as we start to develop those other markets so that we're not so heavily reliant on the U.S. market. We will continue to work on those.
I think there's a tremendous opportunity for agriculture in this country as we move forward. We have dropped the ball as a federal government over the last number of years on science and technology. We've let a lot of that go to the private sector, and our producers are paying for that in not having access to products and procedures that are of more cost benefit to them. We will ramp that back up in the coming days. Innovation certainly plays a big part in the new face of agriculture in this country.
Those are just some of the things we've been working on in the last four months, continuing on with the great work that Chuck Strahl started.
I'm happy to take your questions. We have some time left to do that.
Mr. Chair.
3:55 p.m.
Conservative
3:55 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and welcome, Minister.
Although you said you and I might get into the Canadian Wheat Board, I do not intend to get into the Canadian Wheat Board issue today. It is before the courts. I think it's fair to say that you had 13.8% support for your position; that's not adequate. But definitely, the previous minister, the Prime Minister, you, the parliamentary secretary to natural resources, and a few others on the government side have shown absolute contempt for Parliament by ignoring the motions in Parliament and reports that came from this committee, and have shown absolute contempt for the courts in the way you're handling that issue. That's all I'll say on the matter.
The most urgent issue at the moment, no question about it, is the crisis facing the hog and beef industry. We're losing producers daily. We haven't been getting any answers from you, sir, in the House. I would hope you could answer more specifically today. I will say this in the beginning. I've heard the $600 million announced four times now. I hope that adds up to $2.4 billion. But the $600 million is not going to cut it for the hog industry and your members know that. It's not going to cut it. The Canada Pork Council has asked for an immediate program in terms of loan guarantees.
So my question is this. Have you, as minister, or has your deputy minister provided any direction with respect to the creation of any ad hoc program or any other kinds of programming beyond CAIS advances to address this beef and hog crisis? We need some specifics in terms of what you've proposed.
Secondly, you answered in the House yesterday that you would answer shortly. Can you be specific as to the date the Government of Canada is going to do something, other than the $600 million, to deal with this crisis? We're losing producers every single day. We can't wait until after Christmas. We have to have an answer and we have to have one now. They need a date and they need specifics.