Evidence of meeting #13 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was dairy.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:20 p.m.
Vice-President, Canadian Canola Growers Association
No, it would probably be less than 1%.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
How many guys grow canola that's genetically modified?
4:20 p.m.
Vice-President, Canadian Canola Growers Association
I would say it's 100% in our area.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
You gave a great presentation, and I know you didn't get a chance to get everything in that you wanted to.
I'd like to talk to you a little bit about competitiveness in the rail sector. This is something I've been talking about for a long time. Obviously a more competitive rail system includes the level-of-service review. Getting away from that for a second--we'll get back to that--would you say there's a place for a more competitive rail sector? Is there a place for technology advancements in there? For instance, would a railcar that has more capacity and less footprint and that is easier to load or unload be something that you would perceive as being beneficial?
4:20 p.m.
Vice-President, Canadian Canola Growers Association
Obviously any improvement in technology so they can get more product done. it's about tonnes per mile or per day. If the railways have a way to do that, then yes, I believe there is. Obviously with GPS technology in rail movement, it's hard for us farmers to understand how the rail companies don't know when the train's going to show up. With GPS technology, they should know where that train is. I would go there first before I made cars bigger.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
It always amazes me how they can have a 99% time of arrival when it comes to passenger trains, but when it comes to our trains out on the prairies with our wheat, barley, and canola, 65% seems like a great number to them.
Getting into that and the level of service for you, what are some of the things your organization would like to see come out of the level-of-service review? And how important do you think the level-of-service review is for competitiveness in the agriculture sector moving forward?
4:20 p.m.
Vice-President, Canadian Canola Growers Association
If I were to move that even more globally, the rail system in this country is holding hostage many more industries than agriculture. It's holding this country hostage in its ability to move forward. It is the backbone of this country for the development: if we go back in time, western Canada was developed under the railway system.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
I agree, and I agree we should be exploring all options, whether that's through technology, level-of-service review, or pricing reviews.
I know my time is running short. You also talked about market access, which is clearly something important to the agriculture sector, not just canola. Science-based regulations, I agree, are tremendously important.
Could you tell me the most important market that you see out there for canola?
4:25 p.m.
Vice-President, Canadian Canola Growers Association
Obviously the big market in expansion is the Asian market, China and India, because of the population explosion there.
Someone said today at a presentation that it's easy to get markets; it's harder to keep them. I think that's one of the key things of market access: the ability to keep the market open for the future. It's one thing to get the market, but it's to have that market access and have the things in place to keep the channels open.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
What do you see are the priorities in making sure we maintain those markets once we open them? The minister's done a great job of getting us access to these markets. What's the challenge in maintaining them?
4:25 p.m.
Vice-President, Canadian Canola Growers Association
I think it is common regulations, a regulatory system that can be recognized across borders more easily. Low-level presence policy is part of that. And non-tariff—breaking down communication. Sometimes it's just a matter of countries learning about your product. They've got some old thing on the books that's got some tariff. Obviously it's bringing down tariffs.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
Excellent.
We talked about effectiveness in the railcar system. You talked about how the country revolves around rail. I couldn't agree with you more. Your area would be serviced more by CN. Have you seen an increase in the level of service over the last number of years? If not, do you have any knowledge of CP, in particular over the last year?
4:25 p.m.
Vice-President, Canadian Canola Growers Association
Over the last year, obviously, CP dropped the ball and CN took hold of that opportunity. I think that goes back and forth from year to year. As a producer I'd love to see common access to rail lines, such that we'd have running rights, we'd be able to purchase from other companies so we'd have competition in the rail system.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
November 22nd, 2011 / 4:25 p.m.
Liberal
Frank Valeriote Liberal Guelph, ON
Thank you, gentlemen and ladies, for coming today and taking time from your busy schedules to be with us.
The issue of supply management has been on everyone's radar. Ron, you've raised it unequivocally. In the last couple of weeks we've seen a lot of editorials precipitated by people in the restaurant industry, which frankly I find troublesome. We've looked at competitiveness for years here in the one area where farmers aren't receiving their incomes from cheques in the mail from the government to their mailboxes: the supply-managed industry. You're right, Ron: other countries such as the United States highly subsidize their farmers, well beyond what Canadians have ever done.
I go to the farmers' market in Guelph at least twice a month, sometimes more when I can get there on Saturday mornings. People from all socio-economic backgrounds are there. They are not complaining about the price of cheese, eggs, or milk. A hell of a lot more restaurants are opening there right now than there are people getting into the farming industry. So we're behind you, and you need to know we're behind you. You can comment on that, any of you: Mark, Ron, or Phil.
One of the issues that has arisen is the difficulty that young farmers have in getting into the industry because of the price of quota, which seems to rise. I'm wondering if any of you have thought how that might be addressed so we can encourage young farmers to get into the industry in some fashion.
4:25 p.m.
Vice-President, Dairy Farmers of Canada
Thank you for your comments. And thank you to the government and all parties for the continuted support of supply management. We very much appreciate that.
In response to your question, the dairy industry has taken that as a concern. We have a new entry program that is across the country, with the exception of maybe one eastern province, and that is the P5.
We have 50 new producers who are assisted in coming into the industry each year. They're assisted by a loan program of giving them a quota on a loan basis and they have to purchase an equal amount. Then that quota has to be returned over a 17-year period. We realize it is an expensive proposition to get into, but I guess it's a cost factor of doing business. Anything where there is a stable return, whether it be a McDonald's franchise or a Tim Hortons franchise, or whatever, there is a cost of getting into the business. There seems to be an attitude out there that anyone can produce food. It is a business. It is a profession. It is within supply managment, and because of the stability of supply management it is a profitable entity.
That's what the dairy industry has done to address that new entry program.
4:30 p.m.
Chair, Turkey Farmers of Canada
I echo a lot of Ron's sentiments. He stole some of my thunder with the examples of the Tim Hortons and obviously some of the restaurants that are opening in your area. I'm sure they're not for free.
In our industry it's a little different from dairy. It's more provincially based. But I know some provinces have put, for a lack of a better word, a moratorium in place on the price of quota. They've tried to restrict the amount of quota, not in the sense that you would, but ownership, percentage-wise.
It's an issue no different from any other industry where it's been recognized. There are different steps being taken to see what they can do to keep it in line and to ensure that it's there for future generations to be able to get into.
4:30 p.m.
Liberal
Frank Valeriote Liberal Guelph, ON
Without threatening the value of farmers' estates later in life, do you recommend that more attention be given to this and maybe having governments collaborate with one another, and farmers, and your groups to see how something more effective might be done?
4:30 p.m.
Chair, Turkey Farmers of Canada
At this point, I would have a cautionary no. I think it's working fairly well. This has really become an issue, I would say, in the last ten years.
Ron has touched on a lot of the issues. Inherent in supply management is a lot of regulation to adhere to when it comes to food safety, animal care, and the production itself. In regard to the cost of doing business, he summed it up. That's one of them. Because of the stable environment, you're going to have the increase in the cost of the quota.
As I mentioned before, a number of different programs in different jurisdictions are looking at different ways to handle it. It's not problematic in some areas at all. In some areas they have the entrant policy. In my province we have an entrant policy. I'm not going to speak on an individual province's behalf, but I believe most of them do have some policy to ensure there is new blood injected in on a regular basis.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Sorry, Frank, you are out of time. Thank you.
I'll move to Mr. Zimmer for five minutes.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
I have a question for Mark again. One of my constituents is an owner of one of the chain restaurants, and he has made a comment to me. Although he absolutely supports supply management on our side, he has some questions on limited access to Canadian product. I wanted to know if you're aware of that. What he was saying to me is that it's limiting access to him, so they have to go elsewhere. That's a concern for me if we're limiting that.