Agriculture Committee on May 12th, 2009

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Good morning, everybody. As you can see, I'm the chair this morning. Larry called me late last night. He has a death in the family. His aunt died. We told him we could take care of things when he's gone, so he is with his family.

We're going to be continuing our study of competitiveness. We have some speakers here today, but I may ask them to wait, because we have some business we have to deal with before we go to our witnesses. If we can be quick on these three things, we won't leave our witnesses waiting too long.

Number one is a request from the Canadian Pork Council and the Canadian Railroad Association to attend our competitiveness meeting. I don't know that we need a vote on that, but if nobody has a problem with that, then we'll schedule them in.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

What were their names?

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

The Canadian Pork Council and the Canadian Railroad Association. So are we all right with having them come to the competitive part of our study? No objections? Then the clerk will move forward on that.

On our second order of business, we have two motions. Does everybody have them? One is from Mr. Easter and one is from Mr. Hoback.

Mr. Easter, would you like to speak on your motion?

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

How many witnesses do we have, Mr. Chairman? I'm willing to move this to our next meeting, because it's not pressing. The issue this is over the witnesses are already scheduled for, so it's for the future. If we want to move it to the next meeting, that's fine with me. It will take some time; I guarantee it.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Chair, I say if we're supposed to do committee business, we should do committee business. It's on the agenda.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

It's the same with Mr. Hoback's motion. He's not here. So maybe we'll push them forward.

Yes, Mr. Atamanenko.

[Alex Atamanenko, NDP, British Columbia Southern Interior, BC]

If it's going to take some time to talk about the motions, then maybe we should do it at the end of the meeting, because it's not fair. These folks are here and they're ready to go. We should get going with the witnesses.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

We have one more item. There's a bill, Bill C-29, that was referred to the committee yesterday. Sometimes committees are supposed to deal with these bills sooner rather than later. Do we go right to that bill when we come back after the break? That's the question.

Mr. Lemieux.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Chair, thank you very much.

Bill C-29 is a very good bill for farmers. That's one of the reasons we tabled it. There was good debate on it yesterday. Certainly I listened closely to my colleagues when they spoke in the House on this bill. Every party supports this bill, Chair, and I can understand why. We're talking about making more money available to farmers, and particularly young farmers. This is a concern, of course, to farmers. It's the future of farming. Will the younger generation buy into farming, especially family farms? There's a lot of money tied up in this.

So this bill is meant to make more financing available, particularly for young farmers. What I'd like to ask my colleagues, Chair, is if we can move this through quickly. I see great importance in having this bill back to the chamber, passed, and through the Senate before we break for the summer. Why should we make farmers wait? This is a good bill, nothing but good news in it. Farmers have asked for this. It's now being delivered, and I think this is a great opportunity for all of us in our respective parties to work together for the benefit of our farmers.

I would like to put the question on the table. Can we move this through all stages quickly so that our farmers benefit from this?

I think that would cover your first question, about how we should deal with this at committee. It should be top priority for committee. This is legislation. It should be a top priority so we can get it back to the House. And I ask my colleagues, when it gets back to the House, can we move it through the process quickly so farmers benefit?

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

So you want it soon and quick.

Mr. Easter.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

I said in my remarks in the House, Mr. Chair, that we were willing to see this bill go through all stages without even coming to committee.

The bill is needed. It increases availability to credit, especially for beginning farmers, which wasn't in the bill before. And it increases the amount, so it's important in terms of inter-generational transfers.

I would underline the fact, though, as I said in the House, that the bill goes right to the government's record of something they seem to be good at doing, which is increasing the debt of the farm community while not dealing with the income issues. But having said that, it's important that the bill get through rapidly. And because I believe one party wouldn't agree to see it through the House at all stages, I would suggest that we need to then give it a priority at committee. I think the process is that legislation is usually given a priority. And could we get it through committee the first week we're back? Because it has to go through the House and go through the Senate, and it really should be operational for the farm community before we adjourn, so it's important we give it rapid passage.

I do want to say one thing on the parliamentary secretary's comments. Why should we make farmers wait? If there are some opposition parties that want to debate it further, it can't be blamed on them, because the government had lots of time to come forward with this legislation earlier. But the Liberal Party is willing to see it go through all stages quickly, because we think it's needed.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you, Mr. Easter.

Is there any more comment from the NDP or the Bloc, or can we move on?

[Alex Atamanenko, NDP, British Columbia Southern Interior, BC]

I think we should just bring it here after the break and get on with it and get it done.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Mr. Bellavance, are you okay with that?

[André Bellavance, Bloc, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

I do not object to proceeding quickly and moving forward with the bill.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Chair, just to pursue this, Mr. Easter commented that there's another party that would want to debate this further. Again, I'm hearing from my colleagues, and I'm not--

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

There doesn't seem to be, so--

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

No, there doesn't seem to be, so why don't we just move this along quickly and get it back to the House? And I would ask my colleagues as well if we can get this through the House quickly.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Yes, I think so.

Mr. Shipley, do you have something?

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

Listening to that positive response, since this is Tuesday, I'm wondering if there would be an opportunity to have it on Thursday so that we would actually have it back into the House shortly. If we could see it that way, then it would be back into the House right after we come back from the break, rather than waiting for the break and then dealing with it, Alex. We can have that discussion later, but I think that would be beneficial. There seems to be a positive attitude towards that.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Just as notification, we have the Wheat Board coming Thursday, so they might be lined up to come here, but we would have to get agreement from everybody to go on Thursday; if not, we should wait until next week.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

How long is the Wheat Board on for? I'm just listening to the response, so I'm thinking this isn't going to take a lot of time. That was all, but I may be mistaken. It's not to cut them out.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Mr. Atamanenko.

[Alex Atamanenko, NDP, British Columbia Southern Interior, BC]

Mr. Chair, there are other groups presenting in addition to the Wheat Board, and they're probably lining up and getting their travel arrangements ready, so it probably wouldn't be fair to say right now that we can't have them.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Could I add, Mr. Chair, that if necessary.... I know we have subcommittees on Wednesday nights, which is a problem. I don't mind, and if the other parties agree, we could even set a special evening or a special committee meeting to deal with it. We really need to get it done, if not this week, then the first week back, because time is going to get away on us on this one, there's no question about that.