Evidence of meeting #11 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 40th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Past Chair, Prince Edward Island Cattle Producers
No, I don't know it. But historically they've been pretty eager to spend the 60% federal dollars.
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
I'll go back, just for clarification, where there's been $40 a head, $80 a head, or something a head.... Now, Prince Edward Island hasn't done that.
Past Chair, Prince Edward Island Cattle Producers
We did run a program last spring, which our maritime counterparts didn't appreciate, but we had to push for something and we did get something. It wasn't as much as we'd hoped for, but we did get a payout.
Conservative
Past Chair, Prince Edward Island Cattle Producers
As far as the production we've lost is concerned, we'll try to get some numbers back to you. I know you probably don't know the geography that well of where I live, but I'm on the west end of the Island. From the tip of that end to Summerside, we have lost 8,000 head of finished cattle in less than year.
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
I'm looking at the Maritimes as a whole, and that question will come up. It's always hard to regionalize this.
Past Chair, Prince Edward Island Cattle Producers
On the AgriFlex question, I'm not up to enough speed on that to offer much of an opinion, other than to say that we'd like to have the option of a three-year, or an Olympic, average—or whichever one would work better for the producer.
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
My understanding is that the qualifier for that, in terms of the program, is basically up to the province, outside of business risk management.
The last question was on COOL. I'll also look to Mr. Vissers to comment on that.
Executive Director, Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture
On COOL, I think the federal government should lift the WTO challenge off the table. We don't seem to be getting anywhere with the U.S., so I think that's the only option we have, and to carry on with labelling programs in Canada so we can identify product of Canada here.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
You've got 20 seconds. Do you want to add anything on the AgriFlex, Mr. Vissers?
Executive Director, Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture
I haven't had any clarification on where AgriFlex is going yet—if it's going to use the traditional formulas to pay provinces, if it's going to be 60-40. We would like a lot of flexibility in that, so we can do some of the things we talked about today on a regional and provincial basis.
Conservative
Josée Beaudin Bloc Saint-Lambert, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thought that I was being starved for attention, if you will excuse the pun, but now I can ask a question.
My question goes to Mr. Vissers from Nova Scotia. After the question from my colleague to my left, you started to talk about what you thought of the report on the income crisis in the cattle and hog sectors, and I felt that you had more to say. You began your explanation and I noted, among other things, that you consider it important to develop local purchasing and to clearly identify local products because of that. I would like to hear more.
Executive Director, Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture
It's easy to take a report like that and pick and choose what you like out of it. There certainly were some things that caught my eye when I went over it. It was a rather quick review, I'm afraid, so I didn't get a real in-depth look at it. But I like the idea of some of the things they're talking about to try to support the producer locally so we can survive.
We're in a situation, as you know and as everyone else knows, that we haven't seen before as far as the economy goes. In the beef world, I hear that U.S. cattle placements are at 50-year lows, and we're still seeing low prices. So we need extraordinary means to keep our industry alive while we're waiting for that correction in the marketplace and that correction in our economies. And one of those things is immediate payments for producers, which is mentioned in that report, in one of the bullets. It probably isn't realistic to downsize the industry so that we're consuming what we're producing, so we probably need more of the things I mentioned. The things that caught my eye were the buy local part of it, the label identification of Canadian product, those sorts of things.
Bloc
Josée Beaudin Bloc Saint-Lambert, QC
Thank you very much.
You mentioned your expectations. I would be interested to hear what the federal government can do to help you. Among other things, you mentioned recognizing regional differences and low-interest loans. Could you tell us more about these expectations, please?
Past Chair, Prince Edward Island Cattle Producers
One thing I forgot to mention on the AgriFlex question, something our board has asked for at different times, was that we're always looking to our provincial governments for short-term help and then using federal dollars for more long-term help. We would like to know if anybody would ever be interested in the short-term dollars being part of the 40% of the 60-40 split with the feds. That's something we bring up quite often, whenever we get a chance.
We're trying to put programs together right now to stay in business and to get short-term help out of our province, and that is something they push us to ask for as well. That's one thing.
Do you have anything, Brian?
Director, Prince Edward Island Cattle Producers
The producers who are still in business are very heavily indebted, to the point where they're being forced into foreclosure. They just can't continue. So that's where we're asking for and where we need some help, whether through Farm Credit Canada or whichever, to restructure these organizations so they can continue to produce beef and continue to produce other commodities. P.E.I. has a very diversified agriculture business. Most farms do produce more than one commodity.
So that's what we're asking for in the low-interest or debt restructuring: instead of closing these places down, come up with a solution that can keep these family farms in business.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Thank you, Madame Beaudin.
I didn't realize when we recognized Ms. Beaudin that it's one o'clock. We have already had one member leave, and I have to go.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
There are a couple of others, maybe one from each side of the table, who would like to ask questions. There aren't going to be any motions or anything, but we were late starting. I know Frank has some questions, and if maybe one other member had questions, we could go to 1:15. You can leave—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
That is totally up to you. I have to go, because I have a meeting. But If Mr. Eyking and....
Mr. Storseth.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think we need it on the record. I believe we can do this, the same as we do in the House, but we would need unanimous consent. I believe you'll find it, as long as Mr. Easter agrees there are not going to be any motions or anything put forward.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Very good. I am going to ask Mr. Eyking to take the chair.
I'd like to say thank you very much to the witnesses for coming here, and to Mr. Vissers and Mr. Oulton for joining us by video conference. I apologize that I have to slip out to another meeting, but thank you.