Agriculture Committee on March 17th, 2010

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Thanks.

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

Thank you, Minister.

I want to follow up on a comment. You were answering a question from Mr. Bellavance about specified risk material, SRM. I think it's important, because before Christmas we spent a considerable amount of time discussing SRM.

In fact, Mr. Bellavance had a motion on the floor here in committee. I know you follow the discussions that go on here at committee. You delivered in the budget; you put money in the budget for SRM.

Mr. Bellavance, who spoke so much in favour of it before Christmas, ended up voting against the budget. I want to underline that, because--

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

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

I'm just telling you, when we want to support our farmers, it comes down to votes, not to discussions.

[An hon. member]

Hear, hear.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Order, please.

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

I just want to highlight that.

The second thing, Minister, is we did have pork farmers in front of us earlier this week, and we've had beef farmers in front of us. They've all commented on this Market Access Secretariat. I know farmers in my riding, when I've spoken to them, and I've told them about the travels you've made... I believe it's been to 20 different countries, 34 different trade missions.

I wonder if you could just elaborate for the committee, and for the people who are following what's going on today, some of the successes that you've had on these foreign missions.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Thanks for that.

It would take quite awhile to outline exactly the great work that our Market Access Secretariat is doing.

I'm pleased to sit with these folks at this table, and the folks who aren't represented here today too, who have just done a tremendous job for Canadian agriculture and Canadian processors out there on the world stage.

We are a trading nation. When it comes to canola, we export 85% to 90% of what we produce. In the pork sector it's some 50% and livestock is very similar. It's just amazing what we produce consistently and with the high quality that is in demand around the world.

But we do face numerous challenges that are vexatious. There's the country-of-origin labelling situation in the U.S., or WTO challenges we've had to level against Korea, and different situations we face with canola in China. We developed and came up with this idea a year ago of the Market Access Secretariat, or, in layman's terms, a SWAT team, to basically go in there and coordinate everybody into one movement ahead.

We've always had a very active and a very good trade directorate under Agriculture Canada, supported very ably by veterinarians from CFIA and so on. We now have dedicated veterinarians under the Market Access Secretariat.

We have Dr. Robert Morrison from Prince Edward Island, who is our chief technical negotiator. We've never had one before. Dr. Bob, as we like to call him, has been on a number of those missions with me. He does a fantastic job of working through the new certificates that are constantly required by Russia, and every time we turn around, there's something new China is asking for. But they're starting to recognize the fact that we're not going away.

I'm not sure how many trips Fred Gorrell has made to China in the last little while on the canola issue or the pork issue, but I know his frequent flyer miles are chalking up. The results are there, and the kudos that we're getting from the farm sector, from the livestock producers, the canola growers, and so on, are just unbelievably good for the tremendous work that Fred and his team have been doing.

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

Great.

Do I still have time, Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Yes, you have about a minute.

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

Okay.

I want to ask you about agronomic investments in research. JoAnne Buth, president of the Canola Council of Canada, feels that you've made an extraordinary investment in agronomic research. She is expecting it will add $12.5 billion annually to Canada's economy.

Sometimes this flies below the radar. Canadians aren't necessarily aware of it, so can you tell us about the agronomic investments that we're making and what your projections are in that regard?

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

We've made a number of investments in the last while through a number of different sectors within the portfolio. We're all very firm believers in science and technology, innovation, and moving forward, and what we've done is work with industry to highlight what they need in order to move forward into the next segment or next sector.

As you know, canola is a tremendous Canadian success story. It started with rapeseed years ago, and then there was genetic engineering, and so on. We're into canola varieties now that are giving us 40% oil, which is twice what rapeseed did, and are giving us a higher-protein meal that is starting to rival soy in the use beyond.

We made a small announcement in Saskatoon a short time ago about a canola crusher who is extracting the protein from the meal, after he's gotten the oil out, and making a canola tofu. There's a tremendous demand for that type of product around the world.

We've made one of the largest investments into our crushing industry. Canola, flax, mustards, and so on will all benefit from that $19 million investment over the next five years. They have a program extending to 2015 that will see the acreage that's sown expand exponentially because of the demand around the world for that great-quality product. We've identified it in conjunction with industry, and we're helping them fund it and build a strong road map forward.

It's tremendously exciting. We saw some situations earlier with flax going into Europe. A lot of that flax now has been rerouted through China. We're seeing the same situation with mustard; they're taking that oil and putting it into jet fuel. The American air force is actually starting to use a cross-mustard oil in their jet fuel. They're finding that it's working extremely well, and it has a lighter environmental footprint.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Thank you.

Your time has expired.

Mr. Minister, I know you have a cabinet meeting at some point. How long are you with us?

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

I've got 10 minutes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Okay.

We move to Mr. Valeriote for five minutes, please.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you, Minister, for coming before us today. I appreciate it.

Minister, I can advise you that our critic, Mr. Easter, wrote you a letter on March 15, to which he attached a report card from the agricultural union of PSAC. That report card outlined a number of recommendations made by the Weatherill report and their observation of the status.

Could you first tell us if you've received the letter, and when you would expect to be able to respond to it fully?

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

I did receive the letter. I've skimmed through it. I don't remember that it requested a response. These were issues that were going to be raised today. I could certainly write a response if you'd like one.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

We would.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Absolutely.

Certainly we take exception to the vast majority of the grading. There's a misconception that a lot of this has not begun; I'm here to tell you that it has.

As I said in one of my other responses, a lot of the Weatherill report recommendations involve other players as well. I can point to the fact that in this latest listeria situation that we face at Siena Foods Ltd. in Ontario, the Ontario public health is the lead on that particular one, supported by Public Health Canada, and by CFIA with testing regimes and recall provisions that go beyond what public health Ontario has.

We have learned about more communication in those situations, and to better work interactively, and so on--

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you. Could I go on to my next question, please? I appreciate that response--

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Well, there are 57 recommendations. That's only one.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

No, you said you would respond in writing, and I'm happy that you would do that. I'd like to go on with my own verbal questions now.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Sure. It's your five minutes, Frank.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you.

You mentioned that an additional 100 food inspectors will be hired; you may want to turn to Mr. Prince for this answer. In any event, what we understand from our investigation is that in fact there are no new net boots on the ground, and that those being hired are hired either to replace those who are retiring or to be the additional ones needed because of the USDA requirements that someone be present for every 12-hour shift.

We really would like to know how many new net boots there are, excluding those hired for USDA purposes and for retirement purposes. There's a distinction, and we understand that there are no new ones. Could you clarify?

[Cameron Prince]

Well, we have 35 new inspectors hired to do the ready-to-eat listeria work. I don't have exactly the number of people who have--