Agriculture Committee on April 30th, 2015

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Industry Canada leads the work on the interprovincial trade barriers. I know you guys have just completed a study, and I welcome that. I think the more we shine the light on lost opportunities interprovincially, the more people realize that this is huge money. I know at one point we looked at a robust WTO agreement during the Uruguay Round as being a benefit of some $6 billion to Canada, and at the same time we're losing roughly that same amount with the trade barriers and walls that we see interprovincially in this country. If I want to buy a bottle of B.C. wine, I can bring it home from California, but I can't bring it home from British Columbia, which makes no sense to me at all, or you. That's why we, as a government, made sure that we've rescinded the one piece of legislation from the twenties that was still under Agriculture Canada's purview. Now there's really no reason for the provinces not to be able to move that product. They were hiding behind that. Some have embraced it, and some have not, in the way that they think we would have them do that.

It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me to do a deal with the European Union, where we're going to have French, Italian, and German wine coming in, and yet in Ontario I still can't go and buy a bottle of British Columbia wine. It's beyond reason. There's certainly a tremendous amount of work to be done here. I guess any forward-thinking province recognizes that trade within Canada is an ideal way to go. There are certain parts of the country that are better at certain things than others, and we need to be able to move the product in a much more free and open way than we do. So I welcome your report and look forward to the recommendations you're making.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Certainly, I totally agree with you.

Actually, I want to share my time, Mr. Chair, with Mr. Maguire.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Have you finished?

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

I have finished. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Go ahead, Mr. Maguire.

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

Thank you to my colleague from Medicine Hat.

There's just one last thing, Mr. Minister, in regard to the Wheat Board. I know G3 is a registered company in Canada. It's keeping its head office in Winnipeg. One of the benefits, I guess I would say, of the whole process, which I learned the day of the announcement, is that Karl Gerrand is the CEO of that company. I just have to put a plug in for a local Virden, Manitoba, man who now is the CEO of the Canadian Wheat Board, with G3 involved in that partnership.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Yes.

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

I know the family. I lived in Virden a number of years myself, and there's still a pretty tremendous understanding of agriculture in that family and in our local area.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Right now the major players—they call them VCR—are Viterra, Cargill, and Richardson. This adds another major player with that kind of capacity and that kind of scope. When the Wheat Board was looking for a partner to commercialize and privatize with, of course the criteria were that it have the expertise internationally, which Bunge, does, and the ability to continue to expand the footprint. The Wheat Board, under the transitionary phase, had bought Mission Terminal in Thunder Bay. They own that, along with at Trois-Rivières, I think, a subsidiary. They've continued to make payments on the lakers. One is delivered and has made the first run-up. It got sideswiped by some ice on the run-up, but it's there, it's loaded, and its making its first voyage back.

At the same time, there are four new elevators under construction—two in Saskatchewan, two in Manitoba—and they continue to increase that footprint. They've purchased two other facilities in Saskatchewan that are also attached to short-line rail. I know the farmers along that are buoyed by the fact that they now have an international marketer that is a co-owner of those enterprises. They're also committed to building another number of elevators as they assess the gaps throughout predominantly western Canada.

But Bunge itself has a large footprint and a crush capacity in the rest of Canada as well. It's well known and well respected around the world, and it'll get us into markets in which right now we're not a major player. We look forward to that. An expanded presence at the west coast is always good. It has that ability.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Thank you very much, Mr. Maguire.

Minister, on behalf of the committee and all members, I want to take the opportunity to thank you for coming out.

With that, we are going to move to votes on the main estimates. I want to thank the department heads for coming and being the support that is sometimes needed. I think with the thoroughness of the minister, obviously we see he's very much in tune with the issues around his portfolio, and we thank him for that.

We will release the witnesses, the department heads, because we do have votes. That will mean that you won't have to come back.

Thank you again, Minister.

With that, we will have the votes on the main estimates.

AGRICULTURE AND AGRI-FOOD

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$548,177,880

Vote 5—Capital expenditures..........$27,872,294

Vote 10—The grants listed in the Estimates and contributions..........$367,238,619

(Votes 1, 5, and 10 agreed to on division)

CANADIAN DAIRY COMMISSION

Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$3,605,377

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

CANADIAN GRAIN COMMISSION

Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$4,883,698

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Shall I report the main estimates to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

If you like.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

For your information, we will try to have that happen at the first of the week.

Thank you, colleagues.

The meeting is adjourned.