Agriculture Committee on March 26th, 2015

[Joe Reda]

For me not only is it important on a competitive basis, but it's important that we secure our food safety. In this country we've experienced it. We've experienced it with human lives and monetarily. It's a question of having one regulatory body.

On your point, I'm all for smaller plants and setting the criteria where the Canadian government might give a smaller plant a pass on having CFIA fees. They have to meet certain criteria. I think the council wouldn't object to that, to giving these companies a break to get there. But we're playing with fire, I think, especially in terms of our trading partners. It's a very competitive market out there. Some of our trading partners are still bringing up mad cow from five or six years ago. They're still bringing it up that we're not classified as “free”.

We need to protect “made in Canada” and “product of Canada”. That's our obligation, as is the safety of Canadians.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Thank you very much, Mr. Zimmer.

I'll go to Madam Brosseau, please, for five minutes.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Thank you, Chair.

I'd like to thank our witnesses for their presentations today.

Mr. Reda, how many employees do you have in Laval?

[Joe Reda]

In Laval I have 250.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

You have 400 all together?

[Joe Reda]

Yes.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Is all the meat used in your products from Quebec, or is it from...?

[Joe Reda]

Well, we buy from Canada.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

So it is Canadian.

[Joe Reda]

I have to use all federally inspected meat. My beef comes from the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Okay.

I represent the riding of Berthier—Maskinongé.

There are two abattoirs there, ATRAHAN Transformation Inc. and Lucyporc, which are represented by the Canadian Pork Council.

[Joe Reda]

I have bought from those two abattoirs.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

That's great.

[Joe Reda]

Their products are very good.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

We are proud of them.

[Joe Reda]

I think that Canadian pork is the best in the world.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

I think everyone agrees with that.

I would like to talk about a problem stakeholders in the industry often share with us, which is labour in Canada. Perhaps you don't currently face this problem in Laval and Montreal, but it's a problem at certain abattoirs and processing plants. There is a real crisis here in Canada. In addition, there's the April 1st deadline.

Could you talk about this problem in Canada and elaborate on that?

[Joe Reda]

I don't use temporary foreign workers because I am in an urban area. The reality is that Canadians don't want to do this work. We have only immigrants in my plant. It is very rare to see a second-generation Canadian doing that kind of work. So I never have enough staff.

A shortage of labour in abattoirs will harm our industry significantly over time because we are really opening the way for…

trade. We opened these lines of trade, but we can't take the opportunity to put the meat into boxes and to ship.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Absolutely.

A document that I found on the website of the Canadian Meat Council says that in the first 11 months of 2011, some 1.1 million livestock and cattle and 4.4 million live pigs were shipped out of the country to the United States to be slaughtered, and then we bring it back. So those are losses for Canada.

[Joe Reda]

Well, I prefer Canadian pork, but if I can't get Canadian pork I'll buy American pork. My first choice is Canadian pork, but if the abattoirs can't supply it....

Some of the abattoirs, because of their mix of foreign trade to Canadian—we can't eat all the meat that we produce here—will choose to keep those foreign avenues open, and the result is less meat in the domestic market. What does that do? I go to buy a shoulder from the United States, where it takes one person to cut off a shoulder. When I process the shoulder, it takes three to four people. So the trickle effect on jobs is also a big thing.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Reda.

Mr. Laws, can you comment a little bit on what is going on with worker shortages, and on which provinces are having more difficulties?

[James Laws]

Yes, I can. Currently you can see on Canada's Job Bank website that we have about 750 empty full-time positions in meat factories across Canada, largely in Alberta and Manitoba, but that's not to say there isn't a need for them as well in Ontario.

The challenge is that we have an endless search for labourers. We are always looking for Canadians. We've looked for unemployed youth, for aboriginals, for immigrants, for refugees. It's tough work, it's cold work. Unfortunately, we've had to rely on the temporary foreign worker program over the last few years, and that's a challenge for us. We'd much rather have immigrants, full-time workers; staying in Canada working in those jobs is very important.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

What are you asking the federal government to do with the April 1 deadline coming up? Are you asking for an extension?

[James Laws]

We would like to have the opportunity for industrial butchers to be eligible to use the express entry program. We want to be able to offer jobs to people around the world who have butcher skills to come to Canada and work in our facilities. We want full-time workers; that's pretty important to us.

We of course also want to have as much flexibility as possible for those who are here currently under the temporary foreign worker program to be eligible to stay and apply for Canadian citizenship. They're here, they're working, and we know they're working well. They want to work in these meat factories. We want Canadians to work there; we can't get them. So we need to keep them.

Otherwise, as was mentioned, animals will simply go to the United States and the processing jobs will be lost to the United States.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Thank you very much, Madam Brosseau.

Now we'll go to Mr. Keddy for five minutes, please.