Evidence of meeting #36 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 security.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Alex Atamanenko NDP British Columbia Southern Interior, BC
Are we stopped with foreign markets? You mentioned scrapie. Do we export lamb right now, or are we not able to do this?
Executive Director, Canadian Sheep Federation
We can export feeder lambs and lambs direct to slaughter, but with the Canadian dollar being what it is, we're importing more product than exporting right now. Prior to the border closing, we were exporting slaughter and feeder lambs at a very high rate, but in the last three years we've been importing more. That's partly due to the fact that we're short lambs here in Canada. We have processing plants that are built to supply lamb, so they're bringing in feeder lambs from the U.S. and feeding them out here.
NDP
Alex Atamanenko NDP British Columbia Southern Interior, BC
Other than having a better break in regard to the various chemical products or antibiotics that you need, and to harmonization, are there other things the federal government should be doing to help you in your industry?
Executive Director, Canadian Sheep Federation
We need the border open. The U.S. is our largest trading partner and we cannot gain access. There's Mexico as well; if we ship breeding animals into Mexico, the minute one of our animals puts a hoof on the ground, the U.S. is going to change Mexico's status. So we need to get the U.S. border open so that we can get into the Mexican market.
We have a diversity of markets for our genetics. Our ewe flock tends to expand. We saw that happening right before the border closed. There was a tremendous growth in the demand for our genetics, and we have a very good reputation for our genetics. Russia is looking for Canadian genetics. They want to double their production and are looking for Canadian genetics to base their production expansion on. When that happens, our entire industry grows.
NDP
Alex Atamanenko NDP British Columbia Southern Interior, BC
Do you believe the border is artificially closed because of lobbying by your industry in the United States? What has to happen to open that border?
Executive Director, Canadian Sheep Federation
Small ruminants need to be included in rule 3. I know the U.S. is right now dealing with R-CALF, and they're a bit gun-shy about putting rule 3 on the table before their issues with R-CALF are settled. But we don't even have a guarantee that small ruminants are in rule 3, and there is some speculation as to whether or not we should have even been included in the original border closure. We feel that six years of not being able to access the market is a bit excessive.
NDP
Alex Atamanenko NDP British Columbia Southern Interior, BC
So why were you included in the border closure?
Executive Director, Canadian Sheep Federation
Because scrapie is classified as a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, so it's under the same umbrella as BSE. When the border closed to BSE, it closed to all ruminants.
Conservative
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
Thank you.
Thank you so much, witnesses.
Ms. MacTavish, I have just a couple of things. Just to follow up on what my colleague was talking about in terms of the national market, I wonder if you could just touch a little bit in terms of.... I have a number of sheep growers in my area, and actually it's one of those very positive aspects in agriculture. We have a number of them, but that's one of them. One of them is the fact that you were saying you can't meet your domestic market, and in fact other countries are struggling to meet it. So it is a growing industry. I'm wondering, though, what initiatives you've put in place, or your federation is doing actively, to promote and to grow that national market.
Second, you talked earlier about the lack of ability to access medications—for example, anti-parasite drugs used around the world but not in Canada. It's an issue not only in the sheep industry. It is an issue that is out there within the horticulture industry and within the livestock industry in general. I'm wondering if you could just help me. What does that actually mean to your industry, not having the access? You can keep those, and then I want to go to Mr. Clancy and Mr. MacKay.
Executive Director, Canadian Sheep Federation
I'll deal with what the industry is doing right now to increase expansion.
I have to commend the government, actually, because it's been quite supportive in the past couple of years in helping us unroll programs for producers. So we've been able to develop tools producers can use to understand their costs of production.
One of the issues we're dealing with when we talk about expanding flocks is that we have to talk about not only more ewes on the farm but getting more lambs off the farm. So if you're lambing out 1.8%, you're marketing the same amount of lambs that you're lambing out. We've done cost-of-production templates. We're using pilot projects for RFID to help producers identify where they're having profit leakages on their farms and where they can expand production. Support for that project specifically has come out of AAFC in the Growing Forward program. We have done our scrapie genotyping program as well, which is adding credibility to our genetics. I'll keep that brief there.
In terms of the medication, the impact it's having is that when producers do not have access to medication and they have to bring in veterinarians in order to have prescriptions, it increases their cost of production. In our situation currently, we're losing critical mass, so we're actually losing veterinary knowledge on what drugs are supposed to be used. It's not only an access-to-medication issue; it's a knowledge issue. We don't have enough veterinarians who are specializing in small ruminant production. We've actually heard of cases where producers are researching products on the Internet and trying to bring those products into the country under own-use importation. It just becomes an issue of food safety protocol.
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
Is it an issue in terms of the scientific regulatory process that is in other countries, but we haven't adopted maybe because of the amount of that medication that is used?
Executive Director, Canadian Sheep Federation
Right. If I were a drug company, I might be a little bit tentative about trying to test a product in such a small market. That's part of the reason why we're looking to have information and scientific knowledge come from other countries.
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
Thank you so much. If I have time, I'll come back.
I would like just to go to the CAAR people, if I could.
The regulatory burden mainly seems to be around NH3, anhydrous, and urea.
Executive Director, Canadian Association of Agri-Retailers
No, it's multiple. Urea, not yet; we suspect in the future. Anhydrous, definitely from the Transport Canada side. However, we have Natural Resources Canada for any of the fertilizers with explosive potential for strictly components regulations.
Conservative
Chairman, Canadian Association of Agri-Retailers
Well, nitrate-based fertilizers at this point.
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
Most of those, from my experience, other than anhydrous, are in fact contained inside fertilizer storage facilities. Is that right?
Executive Director, Canadian Association of Agri-Retailers
Anhydrous ammonia must be stored either—
Conservative
Executive Director, Canadian Association of Agri-Retailers
Oh, outside of that.
That's correct. Granular and liquid must be stored in bins and in storage facilities.
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
I think the main issue is around that. In our area, we have some anhydrous dealers who have actually secured places, and others who bring it in from secured areas to temporary filling stations where the farmer then picks it up. In fact, not only then, but the concern in the area actually from anhydrous is that unless the farmer empties the tank right out at night, there is an anhydrous applicator sitting there, which is under the same issue that you have. These guys don't come in and take a lot of it; they come in and take propane containers full.
Executive Director, Canadian Association of Agri-Retailers
Are you referring to the crystal meth issue?
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
Well, we're talking about two different things: security for terrorism issues and issues around drugs. Quite honestly, I think one is as serious as the other.
In saying that, is that part of what the security issue is for?
