Agriculture Committee on Oct. 29th, 2009

[David MacKay]

Any reduction in transportation access and service may mean having to source from farther distances with more demurrage costs. Longer distances mean higher transportation costs. So intuitively, without knowing exactly the situation and where it will affect regionally the most, that could drive the cost of acquisition up, because transportation is a key component of that.

[France Bonsant, Bloc, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

You also talked about seed and competition. Unless I am mistaken, at one point you stated that there will no longer be any competition, but rather a monopoly. The monopoly situation is at present reducing prices, but once it has taken over the entire field, prices will go up.

Are these companies Canadian, or are there some that are American? Russia and even China are starting to get a foothold everywhere. Is China going to be coming here to Canada to compete?

[Ken Clancy]

On what we're seeing in terms of the acquisition and reduction in independent retailers in the market, the acquisitions are being conducted by publicly listed corporations. Agrium Inc. is listed on the TSE and the New York Stock Exchange. Viterra Inc. is another publicly listed company. I don't think we have seen any direct sort of involvement by any strictly foreign companies to date.

[France Bonsant, Bloc, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

In fact, everyone is familiar with Monsanto and its world monopoly. Is it one of the players in seed and fertilizers in your area at present?

[Ken Clancy]

Certainly Monsanto is a big player in seed. We buy and sell Monsanto seed. To be honest, they're actually a pretty good company to deal with.

[France Bonsant, Bloc, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

You have not read the book.

I will come back to you, Ms. MacTavish. I am not a farmer, but the only things I do not have on the farm are serpents and snakes; I have all of the rest.

Lamb is important. Lamb is more and more sought after locally by people to put on their plates. I am having trouble understanding why there is greater and greater demand and less and less consumption. Is it because the cost of sheep is going ever higher? Is that the reason why you limit your production?

[Jennifer MacTavish]

I want to make sure I understood the question properly.

[France Bonsant, Bloc, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

You are saying that right now there is a lack of sheep because of the slaughterhouses. There is more and more demand, but you do not have enough sheep. Sheep are being imported. If there are not enough sheep, is it because the costs involved in raising them are too high?

[Jennifer MacTavish]

There are input costs impacting producers' abilities to expand. There are rising costs of feed and fertilizer, and growing their own grains is becoming expensive. There are definitely costs associated with that.

But when we look to expand a flock, investments need to be made in the farm. Whether that includes expanding your land base, building more barns, or even buying more breeding stock, producers are finding it difficult to access lines of credit to do that. One of the ways we're trying to encourage them to expand production is by getting more productivity out of their ewes. So they put more meat out the door every year.

[France Bonsant, Bloc, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Do you get a return on the wool?

More and more, people are turning to natural products. Could the wool from your sheep provide you with a little bit more income?

[Jennifer MacTavish]

The short answer is yes. But currently wool prices have been depressed. We send most of our wool to China to be washed and spun. There is a history of a stockpile of wool on the market coming out of Australia. That has depressed prices.

We are looking at other ways to market Canadian wool so we can expand its use and its profitability for Canadian producers. But that's another way to diversify and get more income from the animals--as is dairy.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Thank you.

Your time has expired, Ms. Bonsant.

Mr. Storseth, five minutes.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I would like to thank the witnesses for coming today.

Ms. MacTavish, I'd like to ask you a couple of questions. When you talk about 11,032, is that the number of members you have or the total number of sheep producers?

[Jennifer MacTavish]

That's total sheep producers.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

Would you have a breakdown on that per province? I don't need it now, but could you submit that to the committee? It's a matter of curiosity.

[Jennifer MacTavish]

I can do it by percentage on production, so the producers are going to be in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

It would be interesting. Does that include goats?

[Jennifer MacTavish]

No.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

There are actually two things I'd like to specifically talk to you about today. You mentioned the ability to give things like IVOMEC or some of those tools to help producers decrease their costs when it comes to looking after their sheep, goats, or cattle, or anything like that. Obviously, the own use import program, a program that the minister has kept in place, was largely used by producers in order to keep the price of glyphosates down. I'd like a couple of your comments on the GROU program. We do have PMRA in here on a fairly annual basis, at least to talk about this program. I'd like some of your input on it. They always claim that they're putting more products on, that they're getting newer products in, and that they've actually decreased the time it takes to register a product in Canada substantially and have cleared out a lot of the backlog. I'd be interested in your opinion on that.

[Jennifer MacTavish]

I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. What is the name of the program?

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

The GROU program. It's the replacement for the own use import program. I believe it had eleven new products in it as of last year.

[Jennifer MacTavish]

I'm not overly familiar with that program, so I'm not comfortable commenting on it.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

Maybe we can get you some more information on it.

[Jennifer MacTavish]

That would be wonderful.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

You talked a little bit about the growing industry you have. I do have family members who are goat farmers; obviously you often deal with goat farmers and sheep farmers. Part of the problem you have when you talk about building fences and so on is that there are definitely different issues for fences for these animals than there are for cattle. But I think the larger problem they have is the development of a market. If you're anywhere near Toronto, for example, you have a great market to go to. But if you produce outside of Edmonton, I believe the market is there but it's not developed.

I think the government should play a role in helping to develop the market rather than in making sure that people have enough shelters to put on their land. I think that's more of the government's role. Would you agree with me there? At the end of the day, what farmers want is to be able to gain a product out of the market.