Agriculture Committee on Nov. 18th, 2010

[Paul Mayers]

Merci.

Indeed, we completely agree in terms of the issue of reciprocity. In fact, it is a fundamental expectation within our system that products imported to Canada meet Canadian requirements: those same requirements that our domestic producers have to meet.

With your indulgence, Mr. Chairman, I think it's important that we look at the system in the international context as it relates to foods. There is an international organization, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, which establishes the international standards that countries trading in foods rely upon in basing their standards. Canada's standards certainly take full account of Codex Alimentarius, as do the countries with which we trade.

Our specific domestic standards, as reflected in the various acts and regulations that govern the safety of foods, must be complied with. The CFIA, of course, has offices across the country. We certainly encourage any industry player that is aware of a product that they believe does not meet Canadian standards to bring that product to our attention, because that serves as a very useful complement to the comprehensive inspection and compliance program that we operate in relation to imported foods. If, in addition to the program that we operate, a particular industry player believes there is a product that it is competing with and that does not meet Canadian standards, then we will be happy, if they bring that to our attention, to immediately investigate.

It may be prudent, if you agree, Mr. Chair, if I ask my colleague, Dr. Dubuc, to briefly overview the testing and laboratory capacity that we employ in terms of assuring ourselves that imported foods indeed are meeting Canadian requirements.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

We are over time, but it is an important thing.

Dr. Dubuc, go ahead.

[Martine Dubuc, Vice-President, Science, Canadian Food Inspection Agency]

With respect to imported products, we have in fact increased our surveillance of various existing pathogens. It is the $223 million allocated to the Food and Consumer Safety Action Plan that has enabled us to improve surveillance on products that enter our markets.

Every year, we increase the monitoring of imported products. Our laboratory results give us confidence in the very high quality of these products. To date, we have not detected... When we do find something, we take immediate action. I should remind you that it was as a result of the monitoring that we do every year that this year we detected the chemical ochratoxin in products for children. We were able to increase this monitoring. We can therefore reassure Canadians that the products being sold meet internationally set standards that are monitored by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Lobb, you have the last five minutes.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'll refrain from third party quotes and slanderous comments during my time for these questions.

The riding I represent is Huron—Bruce. It's home to some of the most productive cropland and livestock producers in Canada. I'll just do a brief preamble and then I'll get to my question.

The county I share with Mr. Miller is Bruce County, one of the largest producers of beef cattle in Canada. Huron is one of the largest pork-producing counties in Ontario and has tremendous IP soybeans and edible beans through the Hensall co-op--white beans, kidney beans, navy beans, you name it. It also is home to the Ontario Dairy Goat Co-operative. Large portions of these products are exported. In addition to that, we have a tremendously successful supply-managed sector as well. Huron—Bruce has a great number of dairy operations, as well as very large egg layer and broiler operations.

My question is, given the complexities in trade negotiations to promote our products that we export while protecting the vitally important supply-managed sector, could you tell this committee and Canadians listening at home how you work with international trade to protect the supply-managed industries while at the same time promoting trade and finding new markets for our products?

[Greg Meredith]

Thank you. That's a very good question and quite topical in the current context.

The government has pursued a number of new bilateral free trade agreements. We've opened up a number of new markets. Also, the Prime Minister just announced, at the margins of G-20, a significant effort devoted to a free trade agreement with India.

We've never had a difficulty in defending supply management. Our position on supply management is very clear when we enter into any of these negotiations. We strongly support it and we don't think we're going to have a problem defending our supply-managed industries in any of these fora.

Some point to the trans-Pacific partnership as one area in which our supply management might be at risk. We don't believe it will be. We already have free trade agreements with a number of members of the trans-Pacific partnership, so we don't think it's a big risk. We've successfully completed a number of free trade agreements without putting our supply-managed industries—dairy, egg, or chicken—at risk.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

A little less than a year ago, in December, there was an announcement in my riding at the Huron Research Station having to do with research in the pulse industry, specifically with regard to drying times. I wonder if you could tell this committee, and those who will be looking at this later, how important it is for Canadians to be competitive in the export market and to continue to push forward on research and development in sectors such as the pulse industry.

[Greg Meredith]

The pulse sector is an interesting one. This is an export market that's going to boom. In the last three years in our trade with India, we've gone from exports of around $130 million to well over $500 million in pulses. It's one of the reasons why our research branch established a pulse research cluster. It looks at boosting the nutritional aspects of our pulses and studies new formulas and processing opportunities capable of adding value in pulse exports.

By bringing together partners from industry and science, we have developed agronomic characteristics that are going to be valuable to our export markets. This is something we've pursued in a number of sectors. I think we have 10 clusters now. And pulse is going to be a huge growth industry for Canada.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Thank you. Our time has expired.

Once again, I'd like to thank all of you for coming in today. I appreciate it very much. I'm sure we'll see you back here soon.

The meeting is adjourned until Tuesday.