Yes.
Evidence of meeting #6 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 cattle.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #6 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 cattle.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Actually, Mr. Robertson, I take exception to your saying I'm playing political games. I am playing on behalf of my farmers in my riding and they need help.
We had a federal programs meeting two weeks ago. Saskatchewan brought up some changes to the AgriStability program. None of the other provinces backed them. Where were you? Where was Ontario? Are you prepared to go back to your province and say we need changes and get them to stand up at the table and say we need changes? You weren't there. Saskatchewan was there and you weren't.
Where were you in B.C.? Were you there, Ed?
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Was B.C. at the table? Can you explain that? Where was Alberta?
Board Member, National Farmers Union
I speak for the Province of Ontario now, do I?
He asked me.
Board Member, National Farmers Union
Yes, he did. He said, “Where were you?” and “Where was the Province of Ontario?”
Director, Kettle River Stockmen's Association
I'm a rancher, and of course I'm involved with our local association. I'm just not sure if B.C. was there or not. I'm sorry, I can't answer that question for you.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Ms. Haley, would you say Alberta would support some of the changes that Saskatchewan brought forward?
Rancher, As an Individual
I'm not in government any more, sir, so I'm reluctant to speak on behalf of my government, although I understand what your government was asking for in Saskatchewan was a per-head payment. I'm sure some of the other provinces also had a problem with that. Your minister needs to do his homework with the other ministers.
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Wild Rose, AB
Okay, great. Thank you.
I've got a question for the NFU as well. I have a little difficulty with one of the positions that you seem to have put forward, and it's in the interest of modern-day business and a global marketplace in mind. There was a report that we reviewed here that you put out, and there was a comment made there about concern over overdependence on export markets. I think it's very clear, and Mr. Shipley alluded to this earlier. I don't think all the products that can be derived from our livestock are necessarily all marketable in our own country. For example, I enjoy nothing better than sitting down to a nice Alberta beef steak, but I wouldn't necessarily be so receptive to a plate of beef tongue or offals. That's just my personal preference and my taste. Yet there are markets that we know of, and there are some pretty large and lucrative markets where those same kinds of products are considered delicacies, and they're willing to pay a good price for them.
It seems to me that your position is almost that the farmers should forego those additional opportunities to get extra value from their products, so they don't become overdependent on these markets.
I know we can make a profit from these markets, and you're saying that you believe that as well. But you're saying that we should just simply pass those opportunities up because something could harm our ability to make a profit, that we don't want to sell the product to someone even though we know they're willing to pay a premium and even though we know it could help our farmers.
Maybe you could explain this concern about overdependency in foreign markets, even though we can clearly see that there's an opportunity there for added value for our farmers on these products.
Can you explain that for me a bit?
Board Member, National Farmers Union
Thanks. That's a good question.
The National Farmers Union is a pro-export organization. We understand that we need to export our products to be able to make a good living. What we mean by overdependence is that we have placed ourselves in a situation where we are now almost entirely dependent on--or at least too much--on the American market, and we've lost opportunities around the world by doing some of the things that we do here that keep us captured in the North American market. We're losing some of the most lucrative markets in the world due to hormones, BSE testing, and other things like that.
We just think we need to move forward on those kinds of things so that we can capture those kinds of export markets, but we also can't put all of our eggs in one basket. While we've been chasing and trying to get export markets, we've lost a lot of our own markets, and we think we need to balance that a little bit more and put some focus on regaining and recapturing our own markets.
Canadians love Canadian beef. As bad as BSE was, it could have been worse--as hard as that is to imagine--if Canadians hadn't been so supportive, through their mouths and stomachs, of the Canadian cattle industry. They know this is good-quality product, done to the best health standards in the world, and yet we're losing our own markets to offshore competition, among others.
We've placed all of our eggs in this export basket. We've seen, on one of the graphs there, that we've actually lost on income for our farmers. So we export and export and it's not coming back. What we're suggesting is just rejigging that balance a little bit. We're not saying we should get rid of exports or that we won't primarily be exporters. We're just saying that we need to make sure we have our own ducks in order in our own country and that we're getting our own markets--a high-value market that has a lot of money in it--to make sure it's returning to farmers. Then let's go out and try to get every market around the world we can. Right now we're blocking ourselves from marketed opportunities because of the way we've addressed some of the issues in our own beef system here in Canada. We think we need to go that route as well.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Wild Rose, AB
I would take it from your comments that we can at least broadly agree on the need for a global marketplace for expanding our exports. Can I take your comments to mean that you would certainly agree and support the work of our minister in the last little while to open up some of these new export markets to try to reduce our dependency on the U.S. market, making sure we have other export markets available to us via some of the agreements we've signed with places like Jordan, Hong Kong, and Saudi Arabia?
Would you say we could agree on that point?
Board Member, National Farmers Union
Yes, I would say they're part of the answer. The problem is they're not the whole answer.
Board Member, National Farmers Union
And I would add that if the market is profitable, I'll be there.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
I appreciate all the witnesses coming in.
I do want to clarify a point or statement you made, Mr. Robertson. You implied that I wasn't being fair to everyone. I very much resent that. When witnesses are giving their presentations, sometimes statements are made that some people around the table may disagree with, but they don't have the right to interrupt. When a member is asking a question, no matter who it is, how they spend their five or seven minutes is up to them. It's up to them whether or not they want an individual witness to respond to their questions. So I just want to clarify that. One thing I pride myself on is being fair around the table, and I resent that remark.
If I could say just in closing, as the chair and as a beef farmer, I think we all have a concern around the table about captive supply, and I think there's probably a difference of opinion on how we can fix that problem. I think that's a pretty fair statement.
In our last term of Parliament, I pushed an issue, which was supported around the table, to deal with competition. I continue to do that. Mr. Storseth has a motion on that, which I expect, or hope, will get unanimous approval at some point. It's an issue that obviously needs some work.
With that, I thank all the witnesses for coming.
And thank you very much, Ms. Haley, for joining us via the airwaves.
Ms. Bonsant.
Bloc
France Bonsant Bloc Compton—Stanstead, QC
Mr. Chair, I wonder if it would be possible, when our meetings last until 1:30, to have a small lunch served. We can smell all sorts of delicious odours and we've been discussing beef for some time, and I'm hungry. As they say in English: Where's the beef?