Agriculture Committee on Feb. 26th, 2015

[Gerald Keddy, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS]

Not at all. Sorry; I didn't mean to cut her off.

[Guenette Bautz]

That's fine. I just had a brief comment to add on our relationship with the Americans.

We also had the opportunity to represent Canadian agriculture with regard to the importance of trade. We got to speak with young farmers down there about the issue of COOL, country-of-origin labelling. We've built some strong relationships that have been really beneficial to us. They are our trading partner, and we're now educated on the amount of trade we actually do with our neighbours down south.

Furthermore, we've had some great successes beyond just learning from them. We're also building relationships. We're looking forward to having them with us this weekend as well.

[Gerald Keddy, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS]

[Technical difficulty—Editor]

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

[Technical difficulty—Editor]...but you may be able to come back in later. We're well over.

I'll go to Mr. Eyking for five minutes, please.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Thank you, everybody, for coming. What a great organization for bringing together young farm minds from right across Canada.

My wife and I were the Outstanding Young Farmers 25 years ago, I guess. It was a great opportunity for us to get off the farm and see what other people do. It changed our attitude coming back. It also gave us a sense of pride for what we were doing. I think it's a great thing that you guys are doing.

I also saw a bumper sticker here, “I love farm boys”.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

That wasn't around when we were farming. I mean, the girls ran away from us. We were going around with old half-tons and we weren't making money. I'm glad they're in fashion now; it's good to see.

I'd like to talk about the international scene a bit. I guess now that you're exploring what other countries are doing, it is an international market. There's so much changing out there, from climate change to consumer changes in preferences. You see blueberries from Chile on the shelves or you see whatever. It's such a fast-changing food world. It's exciting, but you're competing against some real hotshots out there. In Brazil they can sometimes have two or three crops a year.

Tell me a little bit about the advantages they might have that stick out, that maybe we could be doing as a government, whether it's from Europe or whatever. Is it financing? What are some of the things that you think we could be learning from other countries, or some other things we could be doing as a government to help our young farmers get in?

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Before you answer that, Paul, the technicians here are amazing; when they see a mouth open, the microphone goes on. So when you go to speak, it will just automatically happen.

Go ahead. I'm sorry to interrupt.

[Paul Glenn]

Great. You've saved me a lot of effort.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Paul Glenn]

I can touch on that a bit. First off, starting with the Future Farmers of America, I think it's a really good tool for not only the people who are in agriculture but also the people who aren't in the agricultural scene but are interested in it. It gives them an area to actually learn more about it, especially at a younger age, when it's important to have an interest in something especially before they do any secondary education.

Through that FFA program, they do a lot of leadership training, such as public speaking training, to really build leaders. These young adults are just amazing in discussions and debates. They have very big sponsors. The national debate winner wins a Chevy pickup. You laugh, but these are very professional people and well-done discussions. That leads in through Young Farmers & Ranchers. It kind of builds them up through that.

That's kind of how we see us building our young farm leaders here, coming up through the 4-H people who are interested in it. Hopefully one day we can have an education system that will build up with agriculture as well. Then we can really solidify the leadership of the young people to be able to speak to you fine people.

[Kerry Froese]

The other benefit of having that training in schools is that even if they don't grow up to become farmers, they learn where their food comes from, and we won't have the disconnect like we see right now in Canada—it is so global—where people don't know where their food comes from. Having that system allows more people to know how people grow things.

We don't have a cow or one chicken in the backyard anymore. Everybody goes to the grocery store for their food. But we need to be able to convey to people why we do what we do. That's why we try to increase our social licence through this program.

[Guenette Bautz]

Further to that, we've had discussions with Agriculture in the Classroom Canada and the CYFF is very interested in working with our Canadian government and any partners that we can put together to lead the project or to at least be involved in the development of a project such as that, which would be national.

[Kimberly Stokdijk]

It's important to note in addition that the FFA program.... Although education is provincial and in the United States it's also state-based funding, all vocational and technical training in the United States is funded federally. Those programs, including FFA and other trades programs within the school systems, are actually funded federally. That would be a wonderful initiative to start, and a challenge for farmers. It's just the average age of farmers, but the support.... It's the skills and the trades that come in and support our industry, and those in the United States are funded by the federal government. That's something to keep in consideration.

In looking at international opportunities and what other countries are doing, I would say that certainly support for innovation and new technologies coming into Canada, and honouring equivalent jurisdictions, such as, for example the EU and the United States in terms of their safety, with occupational health and safety being one end.... To allow new and innovative technologies to come into the country would be a huge boost to farmers across Canada, especially young farmers who want to innovate, who want to find ways to stay on the farm and be very profitable.

Also, it's about having some equivalencies with our inputs. There are some inputs that are not available to farmers in Canada, and that puts us at a competitive disadvantage. It's very important that these equivalencies be considered and that we provide opportunities for young farmers who want to innovate to be able to be at the cusp of science and technology in the country.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Thank you very much.

I'll go to Mr. Zimmer, please, for five minutes.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

Mr. Keddy has one small comment to make. Then I'll keep going.

[Gerald Keddy, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS]

You were talking about the educational component in the U.S. You have to realize, first of all, that our system is dramatically different, but we do have a health and social transfer. The social transfer is for education. The provinces do a great job of taking 100% of the credit for that as if it were their own money, whereas a huge portion of it is federal dollars. That's for the record.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

Thanks for that.

Thanks for coming today.

I'm the B.C. representative on the agriculture committee, Kerry, and thanks for being there for our B.C. farmers. I'm up on the prairies; it's much like Alberta up where we are. We have the prairies and we have grain and cows up there. It's very much a farming community. It's good to see that you're representing the organization.

At first I was first going to ask what it takes to be a young farmer, and it looks like Dean qualifies—

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

—because you have to be under 40. He's still good to go.

I'm glad that you're doing what you're doing, and I have a couple of questions. We're preaching to the converted, to you guys, because you guys are all farmers and you're all under 40 and all of that. My kids go to school. How do you get to that kid to make being a farmer a viable option in this day and age? How do you get to that? Are you getting out to the untouched groups, I guess, that are out there?

I come from a farming background. I wasn't raised on a farm, but my dad and mom grew up on farms. For a short period in my life, I actually wanted to farm. In visiting the farm out in Manitoba where my dad came from. I really liked the lifestyle and the whole bit. But life happens, I guess, and away we go.

Can you speak to what the Canadian Young Farmers' Forum is doing on that?

[Paul Glenn]

I guess I'm a bit of a success story from the Canadian Young Farmers' Forum. Actually, I almost missed out on the opportunity. I was in the 4-H club for a couple of years when I was younger, but in my local area I didn't think anyone else actually liked farming. I thought I was crazy. I got involved in the Junior Farmers' Association of Ontario, and I was lucky enough to go to an Ontario Young Farmers' Forum. The CYFF helps put on these provincial events. Then I was lucky enough as a voting member to be able to go—it was in Nova Scotia that year—and to experience the enthusiasm and excitement about agriculture, and to meet other people and say, “Wow, I'm not crazy”. I know it sounds funny, but I really thought I was the only one in my area. You are able to take that energy—and luckily it lasts all year until the next conference—

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Paul Glenn]

—and really take charge and be a leader and not have farming be just a hobby. And if it's not working, then you can talk to someone else who's had similar challenges and then build on that.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

To follow up on that, do you see certain kinds of farming that are more popular, that more young people are getting into? Is it grain farming? Is it raising turkeys or chickens? I used to go to UBC and Trinity Western. I lived in Abbotsford for five years while I was going to school, so I know the area well. It has a lot of those. Are there particular pockets that seem to be having no problem with getting and retaining farmers and young farmers?

[Kerry Froese]

As you know, land prices in British Columbia are very high. When I come to these conferences and I tell other people that I pay $80,000 to $100,000 an acre for my land, some of them literally say, “Why are you still farming?” Through our program, we have high-value, intensive agriculture in Abbotsford just so we can maintain our costs of production and actually farm in that area.

But, as well, I did mow my lawn before I came to this meeting today, just so you know.