Agriculture Committee on Dec. 1st, 2011

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

At the federal level we concentrate on international markets, and each province then has the ability to brand and market their product. Quebec is globally known for its tremendous maple syrup, of course, and a growing sheep market. As you said, there are immigrant communities moving into our large cities that are demanding sheep and goat and so on, and they've certainly stepped up.

I was reading one of the newspapers today about the sheep and goat sales at Agribition in Regina, Saskatchewan. The top breed of goats were going for $1,000 an animal, which is double what they were last year. It's tremendous. The industry has the ability to move forward.

We as a government have put together marketing campaigns. We've put together science and technology to work with the groups. We call them clusters, when we bring together the group, the federal government, provincial government, academia, and the industry itself. We work toward a result that the industry wants, and we've had very good success with that.

On organics, it was this government that put in place an organic standard that builds on the great work done in Quebec as well as the rest of the country. It sets a standard, and if you exceed that, as Quebec has done, that's even better. You've got that global standard that has been recognized by our international trading partners. Quebec is trading its organics internationally now.

[Jean Rousseau, NDP, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

If some time is left, I'll give it to Alex.

Thanks, Mr. Ritz.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Two and a half minutes.

[Alex Atamanenko, NDP, British Columbia Southern Interior, BC]

Merci, Jean. Thanks, Larry.

Minister, we appreciate the idea that we're going to protect supply management. It can be protected, but the quota could increase, for example.

Right now it's roughly...you mentioned that we allow 5% of our production. I know our trading partners want this to be increased to 10%, for example, which means we would still maintain supply management but allow more to come into the country. Thereby our farmers would then take a hit.

Could you commit now, today, that this quota that currently exists of 5%—and I believe it's 7.5% with NAFTA—would not be changed?

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

We have no intention of changing it, Alex.

Certainly, there is the capacity for countries to ship into Canada, paying the tariff and coming in. That percentage can mushroom, depending on demand. I know at DFAIT, who sign what's called the supplemental quotas, they always assess. We haven't signed one on beef or dairy or anything for years, simply because it hasn't been required. We've been able to step up our production and meet that demand.

That can balloon in and out, depending on who's willing to pay the tariff to bring a product in. We've also cleaned up a lot of situations. For example, chicken fat came in tariff-free, but you'd open a barrel of chicken fat and there'd be 50 or 100 drumsticks in there. That's not chicken fat. We've been able to reassess and make sure that people understand that when it's chicken fat, it's only chicken fat. If there's a chunk of chicken in there, we're not going to take it.

We've been able to clean up that type of thing and make sure that the lines we have to support supply management are solid and in place.

As one of my colleagues said, we put in place the cheese compositional standards. You can't call it cheese if it doesn't have milk in it. I often say that when you look at the label on some of this cheese spread, it has aluminum chloride and hydrazine hydrate and stuff you can't even pronounce in it. It makes your bute example look like chump change.

We've said you can't call it cheese unless it has milk in it. I get into big problems with my good buddy, Don Jarvis, all the time when I say that, but it's what consumers expect. Consumers are now much more discriminating in Canada and around the world. They want to know what they're getting. They want to make sure it's good, top-quality Canadian product, and in most cases they'll pay a little more for it because they know it's good.

So no change on supply management, not while I'm here.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Thank you.

Our last five minutes go to Mr. Storseth and Mr. Lobb.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I will be splitting my time with Mr. Lobb. It's good to see that we're not only saving the best for last, but the best looking for last.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

We won't comment on that.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

On a serious note, Mr. Minister, I do want to thank you on behalf of the people of Westlock—St. Paul. I've been inundated with letters this week on Bill C-18, marketing freedom for farmers. We're very grateful that AgriRecovery money has been there in western Canada for the last few years, but we'd most certainly rather be marketing and farming the market than what we have been doing. So thank you very much on behalf of the people of Westlock—St. Paul.

As you know, I did sit on the special committee that dealt with the Weatherill report and food safety. I would like to get an update on whether or not the government has to date kept its promise to hire 170 new inspectors.

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

Yes, we have.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

If we have, where are we at in implementing the recommendations from the Weatherill report?

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

As we did originally accept all of the recommendations, we are well under way in putting them all into place. Of course, it takes budgets being passed and so on. The $100 million that was allocated in the last budget for CFIA, as well as refocusing $40 million internally, goes to training and IT and all of the supports that are needed for the 733 inspectors we've hired overall, including this 170 that we've acquired for the ready-to-eat meat products under the Weatherill report.

It takes budgets getting passed to meet some of those standards. As you know, we passed the last budget a week or 10 days ago. George and his team are well on the way to putting plans together on how to spend that money over the next five years. So we're well under way in doing all of that.

There is a final analysis of the report that will be tabled this fall, I understand. We're working on the final versions of that.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

Thank you.

My last question, Minister, is this. We had the cattle guys in my office this week. They love what we're doing on trade. They want us to continue to push it, but they always have a question: why, after we sign these agreements, does it take so long to ratify and get them through Parliament—like the Colombia free trade agreement?

If you'd care to answer that, I'll give my time to Mr. Lobb.

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

You might want to ask the opposition that question. They can answer that one better than I can. There is a parliamentary process. We've committed as a government to bring treaties and trade agreements to Parliament. Certainly, we face the vagaries of opposition on those. I think there's more than due diligence done on some of these trade deals. They serve industry well.

I remember the Colombia free trade agreement—I made two or three trips down there—was well received. The Canadian Wheat Board travelled with me on those trips, because it's a large market for them. Even with their icon, the Canadian Wheat Board, wanting this deal, they kept holding it off, so I'm not sure exactly what went on there.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

Thank you.

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

My first question is regarding the APP, the advanced payment program. We can remember a few years ago when you wisely extended that program, and certainly for beef producers their repayment date is next year and pork is two years from now. Can you comment on how that has positively impacted both sectors? Hypothetically speaking, if you can, if we cross the bridge again, what help will be out there for those beef and pork producers?

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

We assess on a month-by-month basis where the industry is at and what we should do. Historically those types of announcements have been held fairly close to when the need arises, and then we work it through with industry.

We were quite happy to work with the beef and pork livestock sectors to extend the APP. The HILLRP program for pork turns it into a long-term debt, as opposed to having it paid back sooner than later. On the APP side, extensions have been granted at different times, depending on what they're facing. A lot of different factors go into that. Basically it's just a deferral, and as a federal government we're happy to do that. The APP is a federal only program, and it has been well received within the industry.

We understand that agriculture at all levels is a cash-intensive business. It relies on cashflow. When they have hiccups in the market or major eruptions—like BSE, or H1N1 for pork, and so on—governments have the responsibility to be there for those people.

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

We've been doing a review of Growing Forward in our committee. It's reassuring how positively it has been received, specifically around science and innovation. The one comment we get is about the paperwork that's required.

As we move into Growing Forward 2, can you comment on what opportunities are out there to make it more efficient?

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

We'll simplify the forms as much as we can. Ontario is probably a little different from Saskatchewan, simply because of the diversity of agriculture. Each farm has three or four major operations on it, whereas in Saskatchewan it's all grain or all livestock. There are still some farms that are diversified, but they're nothing like we have in Ontario. That's, of course, part of your strength.

It's hard to have a simplified form when you have all that diversity to address, but we'll do our best to make sure it's a workable form that farmers can understand. Today's farmers are very astute. They know it takes forms to make these things happen. But at the end of the day we'll make them as simplified and easy to do as we can.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Thank you very much.

Minister, there's just one last little thing, and I know you'll be as frustrated as I am about it.

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

Probably not.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

It's the situation with Korea.

I understand that some contracts run out in January in the pork sector with some of our companies, now that the U.S. has gone there. I don't know if you can comment or not, but it's something I know you worked hard on, and we're not there. But if you can add anything on it....

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

As a matter of fact, I was able to meet with the Korean ambassador this afternoon, and we'll continue to chat. We held the WTO challenge on beef access in abeyance last July, working as we could to the end of this calendar year to regain access for Canadian beef into the Korean market.

Their inspectors are on the ground here right now. They've been here almost a week inspecting our slaughter facilities that will export into Korea. It seems to be going extremely well. They've had some major problems over there with signing the American free trade agreement. People are still on the streets, but it's an anti-American thing; it's not about food. Canada is still very well respected there. We're hopeful that we can get back into that market in a fulsome way.

When it comes to pork, our guys are looking with envy at the American free trade agreement. We certainly recognize that over time the tariffs will disappear for Americans, but it won't happen immediately. Korea was quite explicit about using Canadian genetics to restock their pork after the foot-and-mouth disease. We've had a tremendous year with Canadian pork going into Korea. We want to maintain that, so we know that we have to continue to work with our trading partners in Korea to make that happen. We're up to the challenge.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Thanks for all your work on that, and thanks for coming here on short notice. We appreciate it.

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

It is my pleasure.