Agriculture Committee on Oct. 18th, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Thank you very much.

We'll now move to Mr. Hoback. You have the last five minutes.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Thank you, Chair.

I want to thank the witnesses for coming out this afternoon.

I must say I'm really shocked at the testimony today, because I'm hearing some very good testimony from Mr. Keller and a lot of hearsay and unproven comments from the other two colleagues.

When I listen to what you are proposing, the only cure you have is for the world population because you're going to starve the rest of the people. If you take this world and go straight to organics and do what you are suggesting, basically you might as well let the Prairies blow into grass. Basically you might as well take all the farmers on the Prairies and let them evaporate, because they won't make a living.

You're talking in anti-trade terms, but if we don't trade we'll never have an economy out west that's actually based on agriculture. You might have your nice farm in P.E.I. that you can look at across the valley, but you will not have a thriving agricultural sector coming out of western Canada. You will not feed the world with your policies, and that is where I am very disappointed here today, because we're looking forward to Growing Forward 2 and what policies we need to put in place. We have been talking with the organic sector to see what we can do to work with them on their concerns about co-existence, but you're not even talking about that. You're talking about the total opposite. You don't even want commercial agriculture to exist.

You think everybody is in the bag of big corporations. I have about 100 neighbours who would take you to task on that. I don't think you've been to a farm in western Canada. I don't think you've been to a farm in Saskatchewan. The way you are talking, you really don't understand how agriculture works.

Then I am confused. How did you get invited to this committee? You talked about agrifood as far as fish and fish eggs go. Again, the fisheries committee might be an appropriate place those points to come forward, but here in the agriculture committee where we are talking about the next generation of agricultural policy, no, it is not the appropriate place. I am really disappointed and frustrated to see that happen here today in the agriculture committee. I'd like to think we vet our witnesses a bit better.

So I am going to go to Mr. Keller, who seems to have the most reasonable approach to where we need to go forward in the next round of agriculture talks.

Mr. Keller, I want to really look at the biotech sector and what we need to do in support of it to see it move forward. What would be the strongest recommendations you would make if you were to prioritize them as one, two, and three?

[Dr. Wilfred Keller]

Thank you.

I do think that we need to ensure the capacity of agrifood research—

[Leo Broderick]

[Inaudible--Editor]

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Mr. Broderick, would you show me some respect? I'm an elected official here. I have every right to say what I say. I have my five minutes to talk.

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

Mr. Chair, a point of order.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

He can show me some respect, because I've earned my respect.

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

A point of order.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

On a point of order, Mr. Atamanenko.

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

I think that respect goes both ways, Randy. There's no need to insult witnesses and show disrespect to them.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

A point of order, Chair.

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

When they come here, they have a right to speak and we can ask them questions in a respectful way.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Yes, but—

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

It's my five minutes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Yes. I didn't see what happened there that upset Mr. Hoback, because I was talking to the clerk. But—

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Again, I'm looking for a constructive ideas to move forward. They have not brought forward one constructive idea. What they've done is talk about 1930s agriculture. I'm sorry, the 1930s are done and we've moved beyond them.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Let's get back to Mr. Keller, if you could answer Mr. Hoback's question, please.

Thank you.

[Dr. Wilfred Keller]

I will raise three points.

The first is that Agriculture Canada and Canada generally should, as much as it can with Growing Forward 2 and other vehicles, emphasize the significance of the agrifood sector in Canadian society. It's playing a big role and will play a very big role in terms of our market capacity in Asia. So we need to have the most innovative tools in place, particularly the suggestion we made around innovation technology centres to reinforce the existing clusters we have. We cited the plant innovation centre for rapidly analyzing plants. I think that's important.

The second is that we are seeing an era of opportunity, with diversification, with major changes in wheat research at the National Research Council, for example, and with potential changes at the Wheat Board. This, in my mind, is a tremendous opportunity to start looking at new products and traits that we can focus on for emerging markets, because there are many emerging markets that want high-quality Canadian products.

And third, I'd add another level that we need make sure that the pipeline here works. Here I refer to regulatory streamlining, making every effort to work with this department on low-level presence, and to work with the international community to get that through, and to deal with bottlenecks of the type we have, which are unnecessary in terms of the research operations and which constrain our ability to innovate. We have to innovate to be competitive.

Those would be the three I would put forward.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

And then, as we move forward and look at the new technologies that are coming forward and at the research that's happening, what can we do to make sure that this research hits the market? What do we need to do to support that research as it moves up through the chain and into the farmers' fields?

[Dr. Wilfred Keller]

I think it works on two levels, particularly if we're going to talk about crops. By way of example, we definitely need to increase the capacity to take knowledge from the laboratory through to the field. That means we need to improve our capabilities to undertake plant breeding in a modern sense and to develop new varieties. I'm not talking of GM here; I'm talking about our ability to work with genetics, to take it to the field using the tools that are available.

Genomics technologies are now widespread. The sequencing of the genome will be critical and will be common practice for crop improvement. We need to be in that space quickly to be able to deliver that knowledge to firms and into breeding programs, be they public or private.

And I think we really want to see the best level of investment and support we can have for small innovative companies. We have tremendous entrepreneurs in Canada. They need to be given a fair chance to take their products and ideas and to push them forward. So whatever can be done through Growing Forward 2, and through the creation of a new funding entity of the type that's recommended in the R and D panel report, would really put our companies on a fair plateau with what's going on internationally. We could see Canadian branded products all over the world, because we do make excellent food products.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Thank you. Your time has expired. And that's the last of it.

I want to thank our witnesses for coming here today.

I'd just like to remind everybody that there is an in camera meeting in this room at 5:45 p.m., so anybody not connected to that should go.

Thanks very much.

See you at the committee on Thursday.

The meeting is adjourned.