Agriculture Committee on April 28th, 2015

[Marc Godin]

We are open to that. The competition between craft brewers doesn't come from other Canadian craft brewers. It comes from foreign product importations.

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

Thank you for appearing today. I think that's all I have. I do see a rise in the craft breweries, and to see that you want the open market to freely compete with the next guy is exactly what we're for and supportive of, so keep going.

I'd like to give the rest of my time to my colleague Mr. Maguire.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

He's just going to take his full five minutes.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Thanks very much.

I also appreciate the opportunity to hear your presentations today. We have microbreweries in Manitoba that are providing small amounts of product. Some of them are going very well, and I appreciate your comments about being able to see them expand and trade into many other areas.

I see here one of your asks, particularly for the microbreweries, is the whole area of wanting to be able to offer product in each province in Canada, as you just replied to Mr. Zimmer. Are there many major impediments standing in your road in regard to being able to do that at this time? Some of the local breweries I've spoken to don't see a big problem with that, but I'd like to hear your comments on it.

[Marc Godin]

Our own government in Quebec simply needs to be more open to the idea. We're trying to explain to them that we have absolutely no concerns in regard to seeing beer from other provinces come into Quebec. That's not an issue at all.

I feel like giving you again a personal example that I lived. In the process of investigating the possibility of opening an Ottawa-based production facility, I met with both LCBO officials and RACJ officials.

The LCBO gentleman was very open. He said that they would welcome us any time and that they had just one rule that we would need to comply with. Wee would have to produce at least 2,500 hectolitres of beer in Ontario in order to be considered as a full Ontario-based producer and, n. from there, we would be able to bring in Quebec beer that we brew in Gatineau, and obviously, they said, they hoped that the Quebec government would allow the same thing to happen the other way.

I don't know if I should be saying this here, but when I met with the Quebec officials to do the same thing, I had to sit down with four lawyers. They said to me that maybe if I told them what my intentions were, if the échange was équitable....

It just sounded so much easier one way than the other. We need to change that.

We in the Association des microbrasseries du Québec,

will take the responsibility to make our officials aware that it's not an issue, not a concern. We want this free trade to happen between the provinces.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

For my other question, I'll turn to the Winery and Grower Alliance.

I want to thank you for your presentation today, Patrick and Del. I have a similar question for you. I believe you said in your presentation that you were looking at expanding that share of the 30% wines versus the 70% of imported wines—

[Patrick Gedge]

Yes.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

—and looking at domestic marketing programs to be able to do that.

I'm assuming—correct me if I'm wrong—that as an alliance you're working with a lot of the wineries you indicated in your presentation. Are you also then of course affiliated with the Canadian Vintners? Are you working with vintners across the whole country with regard to trying to do two things there, to expand that percentage and to deal with plans to do that?

You're talking here about an agri-marketing program, but are there other programs that you could use locally? I'm assuming that this isn't all regulatory. Some of it may be cost, and some of it may be quality.

I think we have raised the quality of Canadian wines tremendously over the last few decades. Your industry has matured tremendously, and we have really good products, and that goes along with pricing them. Can you also indicate to me what are the easiest or quickest mechanisms you've used to expand that market and what you're looking at? If you're looking at 50-50 or going 70-30 the other way, I think we have the quality to do it.

[Patrick Gedge]

Thank you very much.

On your first point, we are fully coordinated and integrated with the Canadian Vintners Association, and we're a member of the CVA. We have a national strategy that is complementary to our provincial strategy in Ontario and to the provincial marketing strategies in British Columbia and Nova Scotia. We look at this from a holistic standpoint. All the pieces have to work together in order to ultimately be effective for the consumer.

We also have marketing funds within Ontario and within British Columbia, and we would look at how those funds can work in tandem with federal funds to have an efficient and an effective overall program. We think that's absolutely the key to our success. You can't run things independently and separately. They have to be totally complementary.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Thank you very much, Mr. Maguire.

That brings this round to an end.

Witnesses, I thank you for your openness. What you've been able to enunciate very clearly about the restrictions that come along with interprovincial barriers helps us. This was our last meeting in terms of witnesses for this study. We'll be putting together a report for it.

What we have heard is that there are so many interprovincial barriers. There was the agreement on internal trade that was signed in 1995 by the federal government, the provinces, and the territories in terms of reducing interprovincial trade barriers, and we know that over time a number of barriers have come down, but in talking to a number of witnesses it almost seems that sometimes those barriers get backfilled again by new ones. In talking about it, it seems to me that it leads to protectionism.

When I listen to the entrepreneurs in front of us, this isn't what it's about. It's about you having a great product. Whatever we have in Canada—and it didn't matter whatever the witnesses we had—we have this incredible product in Canada. As we have opened international markets, it sometimes seems easier to get those barriers levelled out than those within our own country and between our provinces and territories.

Thank you so much. It's been an interesting discussion. We appreciate all of you taking the time to come out and join us and be a part of this study.

[A voice]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

We just have the one group today, so I have about an hour to talk to you for the second hour.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

No, I won't.

You will notice that we have two individuals here today. Jean Michel has been around for 33 years, I believe. He has served the House of Commons for 33 years. He has also served this committee for I'm not sure how long, but since I've been here.

[A voice]

A year and a half.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

It's been a year and a half, and he is now taking his retirement.

Jean Michel, we just want to say to you that you have some colleagues who have come out and who you know well. They've taken unpaid leave to come and be a part of this.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Our committee has a card that we want to give you to say thank you but also to wish you well in your retirement. All the best. Have a healthy and great time away.

We hope that you will from time to time come back and visit—

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Jean Michel Roy]

On CPAC.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

—and that we may see you in the halls of the House of Commons.

Thank you so much for your service not only to this committee but to our country and to the House of Commons.

[Applause]

We know how important it is to have someone who's very knowledgeable about being clerk of a committee and who the chair leans on from time to time to get direction so that we stay on track with what we're doing. We have that again today with the new clerk, Jean-Marie David. I'll call him “J.M.” How's that?

We welcome you to this committee. I hope you will enjoy it as much as we have with Jean Michel.

[Jean Michel Roy]

J.M.—

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Thank you so much.

Folks, on Thursday the minister will be here. Don't forget that we're in Room 253. It will be televised. The first hour is with the minister and the second hour is with the departments. Just as a heads-up, make sure that when the departments are there we stay away from the policies and we direct for information that supports the minister. I look forward to that.

Now that we're at the end of this study, we'll look to get some direction in terms of when that report will be made available to us. Maybe we can get that a little later, maybe on Tuesday.

Mark.

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

Mr. Chair, maybe the parliamentary secretary can.... It seemed to me that there was an agreement that we could get this bill through on the Grain Commission, the bill that was put forward last December.