Evidence of meeting #26 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 consumers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Vice-President, Labour and Supply, Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
Complaints regarding food quality are normally made in restaurants, and restaurant managers are the ones who have to respond to them.
NDP
Francine Raynault NDP Joliette, QC
Very well.
However, do you not interact with restaurant managers on the issue of food quality?
Vice-President, Labour and Supply, Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
The answer is yes, but I do not want to say that we often receive complaints from clients regarding the quality of food served in Canadian restaurants.
Moreover, if there are problems regarding government policies, they are looked at by the association. For instance, with the mad cow crisis, consumers came to our restaurants to tell us they wanted to make sure that that would not recur in Canada. The Canadian Restaurant and Food Services Association worked with producers and inspection agencies so that there would be measures in place to ensure the safety of our clients.
Conservative
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
I'd like to follow what Mr. Lobb asked Christine regarding Taco Bell. He asked where the meat comes from. It's from the U.S. under contract.
If supply management were not there for chicken, for example, would we see the same end result? Would chicken then come in from the United States, and in the end Canadian chicken farmers would lose? Is that a possibility?
Vice-President, Supply Chain, Unified Purchasing Group of Canada Inc., Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
I can't answer that. I don't know. We haven't looked at it from that perspective.
Conservative
Vice-President, Supply Chain, Unified Purchasing Group of Canada Inc., Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
This is me talking now—Chris Moore. What do they have to be concerned about? If they can provide a great product at a great price, why are they afraid of competition? To me it's competition.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
I would say the same about beef. Our Canadian farmers are not well served by beef being bought in the U.S. and sold through Taco Bell in Canada. That's the point I'd make.
Vice-President, Supply Chain, Unified Purchasing Group of Canada Inc., Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
You know, we....
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
I'll move on.
Mr. Newkirk, I see you sitting there over on the far left, and you haven't said boo since your presentation.
I had the opportunity to visit the Canadian International Grains Institute in January. I was really impressed by both the work and the breadth of work they're doing. I certainly learned a lot.
I want to give you the opportunity to comment on some of the things you do and how they benefit consumers now and will benefit consumers in the future, both in Canada and elsewhere, because Canadian product moves to consumers in other countries. I know that you provide services in that regard.
Can you tell my colleagues about the institute—those who have not had the opportunity to visit CIGI and see what I saw?
Director, Research and Business Development, Canadian International Grains Institute
Thank you very much, Mr. Lemieux.
You're all welcome any time for a tour. I'd love to take you through and show you our facilities and the work we're doing.
Basically we work with primarily the processors, people who are buying our crops, and help them understand what benefit they can achieve from using a Canadian product versus alternatives, or using alternative Canadian products for that matter. We have a flour mill, a pasta plant, a noodle line, a bakery, and an Asian noodle line, and all these things where we're working with the processors so the processors can then make the products that consumers want.
Right now we do training for some companies that are buying Canadian wheat; they're turning it into flour and then their subsidiary company is turning it into noodles, and they're having some issues with quality. Their customers are not happy. Our technicians are able to work with them and say, this is what you need to do to achieve the kind of flour you need, and then within the noodle manufacturing process say, here are the steps you need to take to make sure that people are happy, and by using this product, this will get you to that end game. We do that in a number of ways.
Another example of an area we work in for the consumer is looking for opportunities to get Canadian ingredients into their diet. For example, at the food summit a couple of weeks ago, the president of Loblaws stood up and said, “We'd really like to see more pulses in our diet. We think this is something that Canada can produce. It's healthy for us, it's high-quality protein, high-quality nutrients, with good fibre content.” The challenge was basically put out, saying, we think consumers can do this. Canada can be number one at it.
That's a big part of our job. We have people dedicated every day to looking for how we put pulses into our diet—making snack foods...and bigger chickens. I do work on the “bigger chicken” file. We're always looking for ways to achieve things the consumer will benefit from, but that will also benefit our farmers, so we can find ways to make it desirable to use a Canadian product, because the end product will be more desirable to consumers.
Thank you very much for your comments.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
One of the things I did find interesting...you were talking about noodles. We were having this discussion about the consumer, at the far end, making discriminating choices when he's in the grocery store about noodles that he likes and noodles that he or she does not like. You have a role to play in that, in terms of educating processors, for example, about Canadian wheat, what the ratios of different types of grain should be within a noodle, to ultimately have the customer choose that product, both here at home and internationally.
Director, Research and Business Development, Canadian International Grains Institute
That's exactly right. I have to say that under Growing Forward 1 and programs prior to that, we received support to allow us to do that, and we're looking forward to being able to keep doing that in the future. Yes, absolutely, we believe that the noodle manufacturers are expert at making noodles. The flour mills are expert at being flour millers. But sometimes there's a disconnect in the system, and by having all the expertise at the table, we can pull that together to make a better product for the consumer—a noodle that lasts longer on the shelf, has the colour the consumer wants. By making that chain work more effectively, it puts Canada in a good light. It shows that we are there to help them meet consumers' demands.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Now that the Wheat Board is going to be a voluntary Wheat Board, what sorts of opportunities do you see for your role in the same regard?
Director, Research and Business Development, Canadian International Grains Institute
It's a busy place for us right now. The marketing structure has changed, as you suggest, or it is changing. It's created a number of opportunities for us to have an enhanced role in providing training to the entire industry, so they can now make sure they're meeting the consumers' demands, that they understand what it is they want when the product moves. We're spending a lot of time training them.
We're spending a lot of time with farmers as well, so that they understand their markets. In the past, they would say, “The Wheat Board is not moving our stuff; it must be their fault”. Now they're realizing they need to make sure they produce the product the customer wants in that region. We've been going out to their meetings—actually I have another one tomorrow with an association—to say, “You know what? These varieties work for this product, but they don't for this, and here's why.” It's just a support role, and it's been greatly enhanced in the last while.
NDP
Jean Rousseau NDP Compton—Stanstead, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
My question is for Ms. Thurston.
According to the Humane Society International, what is the relationship between the treatment of animals raised for consumption and consumer interest in these farm products? In other words, what link could be established between the quality of food products and the fact that the demand may be high or not so high?
Campaigner, Humane Society International/Canada
Are you referring to food safety?
Campaigner, Humane Society International/Canada
In fact, many studies show that animals that are well treated, and have a certain level of well-being, produce a safer and better quality product.
NDP
Jean Rousseau NDP Compton—Stanstead, QC
If consumers are informed of this, will it have an effect on demand?
Campaigner, Humane Society International/Canada
That is a good question. I know for instance that in 2010, in the U.S., there was a salmonella epidemic in eggs. Further to the incident, the media focused a lot on the fact that it must have occurred because the chickens were raised in cages. In fact, we know that there is a far higher risk of illness among chickens that are cage bred. Afterwards, the media really insisted on the fact that perhaps they should be free-roaming for the purposes of better food safety.
Does that answer your question?
NDP
Jean Rousseau NDP Compton—Stanstead, QC
Yes, absolutely.
So there is an impact not only on the quality of the product, but also on the demand. Consumers want their food produced in healthy conditions.
