Agriculture Committee on Nov. 17th, 2009

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Maybe somebody else could complement the motion.

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

You guys and your rules.

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

Chair, I can propose a motion for a friendly amendment to Mr. Shipley's bill so that our committee studies both government and industry initiatives that encourage youth to be involved in farming.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

This falls in line with what we're planning to do for half of next year pretty well, right?

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

Yes, we start at the first of the year.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

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Is there any more discussion?

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Could Bev give a few examples of what, on the government side, we know about some potential things that are being thought of? Could he give a few examples of what he thinks we might look towards that are currently in place in the industry side?

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

Certainly an example looking at the industry side...I think we want to bring in some of the commodity people who, for example, have talked to us about how you get beginning farmers involved. What have they done as an industry to help in terms of being able to get beginning farmers involved? The other part of it would be, how do we work with that industry in terms of bringing beginning farmers on?

They aren't always just young farmers, and that's why the wording of it. I guess “young” is terminology, but I mean those who are 20 to 40 or 45 years old even, who come back from working and want to get involved in agriculture. I think we'd have the commodity groups involved with that discussion.

Also, I think you have to look at the credit. For example, what credit arrangement is there that financially would be available to help beginning farmers get involved? What aspects are there in terms of where the future is leading--for example, renewable fuels. Where is that leading and where might we be able to enhance some aspects of it in terms of not just young farmers but all farmers? I think some of these actually start back, for some of us who grew up in agriculture, with Junior Farmers and 4-H. Those are young farmers who have taken an interest. What do they see as a vision for agriculture in the future?

I'll leave it at that for now.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Mr. Lemieux.

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

Thanks, Chair. I'll just add a few things to Mr. Shipley's comments.

For example, in my riding, I've noticed that egg farmers are particularly young, which is a good sign. Why is that? Is that industry targeting young farmers? Is there something that makes egg farming much more attractive to youth? Is there something we can encourage?

As well, taking a look internationally might be interesting too, because I don't think this problem is common only in Canada. Certainly, I think that seeing what types of initiatives other countries have taken to encourage youth involvement in farming would be helpful to the committee.

I'll mention one other case that I'm thinking of, which is dairy farmers. I believe that for the dairy farmers in Ontario, quota is a barrier. The price of quota is a barrier to young farmers getting involved in dairy farming. The Dairy Farmers of Ontario have initiated a program whereby they choose 10 young farmers, I think, and they put in place a process by which young farmers borrow quota--they have a certain amount of time to pay it back--so that they can ease into dairy farming.

I think it would be useful if the committee knew of these types of initiatives in each of the different commodities. Are they successful? Are they not successful? Are there government initiatives to enhance these initiatives that might be taken by industry?

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

I'm sure there are going to be a lot of functions and seminars going on in the next half year, whether it's young farmer conferences or whatever. I think if we're going to make a good stab at this in the second half of the year, we should be pulling together a really good schedule that is going to take advantage of what's out there.

Mr. Hoback.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Thank you, Chair.

Actually, this comment kind of goes in line with what the theme of this is. We have the Outstanding Young Farmers coming to Ottawa in the first week of December. I don't know if that's too quick for us to tie it in with something here, but I thought I'd bring that to your attention.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

On that, Randy, do you have the dates?

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

I'd have to locate that, but roughly, it's from the first to the sixth.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

My understanding was that we had the flexibility of a day. Maybe we can get some of them to come in here or we should go down to the meeting or something.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Either way, they're the cream of the crop.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Okay. You're going to get that information to the clerk.

Are there more comments on this motion? This is the amendment.

Let's vote on the amendment from Mr. Lemieux.

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

Thanks, Chair.

The amendment simply includes looking at government and industry initiatives, at both.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thanks, Mr. Lemieux.

Mr. Bellavance.

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

I would like to make one comment before we vote. There is no way anyone could be against this kind of motion. The problem I see with it is consistency between our work and the government's work.

On November 9, Minister Blackburn Minister of State for Agriculture began extensive consultations and a cross-Canada tour on that very subject. I am not against this; it is not a bad initiative. I believe that he has already visited a number of young farmers. In fact, I can tell you what the precise reason for the tour is. He began this cross-Canada tour in order to take the pulse of stakeholders concerned about the significant challenges facing young farmers. He has already made stops in Guelph, Truro, Saskatoon and Abbotsford. I don't know whether this has already occurred, but he is supposed to go to Saint-Hyacinthe, in Quebec, and he will likely be making other stops as well. At the end of his tour, the Minister hopes to be able to have better identified the issues for young farmers starting out in the industry, something that is of concern to the federal government.

I just want to relate the Minister's press release of November 9 back to Mr. Shipley's motion. The press release says:

The roundtables will focus on identifying key issues for young people who want to farm and on charting solutions that will help new and young farmers start their business, capture more opportunities to grow and diversify their businesses.

So, I am wondering whether the Committee should not wait to see the results of this cross-country tour by the Minister, who will certainly be able to provide us with some information. We may have an opportunity to know publicly what young farmers are asking for and what they would like to see happen. After that, if we feel there is a need, we could pick up from there and perhaps invite the Minister and young farmers to come and talk to us about their concerns, as we have done on a very regular basis.

However, would it be relevant to use the Committee's time to carry out a study at the same time as the one Minister Blackburn has just launched? I think we may have a scheduling problem, because it seems we would be adding that to our agenda fairly quickly and that the work would be carried out over a period of six or seven weeks. Such a comprehensive study would obviously take up a great deal of the Committee's time, even as the government is doing its own work on this issue.

As a committee, we would be shooting ourselves in the foot. This brings back bad memories for me. It reminds me of the lengthy study we did on “Product of Canada” labelling. All the parties worked together and conducted a serious study of this issue. However, after we had already been working on this for several weeks, like everyone else, I recall seeing the Prime Minister and the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food at a farm in Ontario, in a beautiful setting, announce publicly that changes would be made to “Product of Canada” labelling. They listed all the changes that were coming. We had not even completed our study yet. And the proof that the government paid no attention to the Committee's work is its decision to opt for a standard of 98%, despite the fact that, here in committee, there was consensus on an 85% standard. There you have an example of a flawed process: ultimately there was duplication of effort, and the end result did not meet expectations—far from it.

I am obviously in favour of looking at issues relating to young farmers. We actually tabled a motion on a number of occasions aimed at helping young farmers. This would be an opportunity to revisit these issues. At the same time, I cannot help but wonder why my colleague is bringing this forward now, knowing full well that the government has already begun the same kind of exercise. We may end up just wasting our time. That is what concerns me. We may also end up wasting the time of the good Minister, who is undoubtedly doing great work by conducting this cross-Canada tour. And he will probably bring back relevant information about what young farmers are suggesting—if you will permit me a little irony, of course.

I understand that this is important, but I am wondering whether the Committee should devote this much time to a study when the government has already begun its own work on this.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you.

I have Mr. Easter and then Mr. Lemieux, but I'm thinking of going to Mr. Lemieux first, if it's all right with Mr. Easter.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

We're on the amendment, correct?

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Yes. Do you want to go first?

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

It doesn't matter.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

I just thought Mr. Lemieux might want to comment on what's going on with Mr. Blackburn, what the agenda is, and how it's going to affect this committee.