Evidence of meeting #9 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was ceta.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
I'm sorry, but you're time's up.
We'll now go to, as promised, Mr. Eyking.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Witnesses, thank you for joining us from out west.
I'm going to go to the organic growers. They only give Liberals five minutes, so my questions are going to be short. If you guys can be as short with your answers, I'll be able to get questions to all the witnesses here.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
But I only get one round, and I already used 30 seconds.
Anyway, gentlemen, you're from Manitoba and today there's an article that came out about the problem with the railroad. It says that grain companies report a weekly shortage of 1,000 to 2,000 cars and a backlog of around 8,000 cars and rising. Keystone Agricultural Producers' Doug Chorney says this is unacceptable. He says he's contracted grain off the combine and hasn't moved a bushel off his farm yet.
Then there's another article coming out of Regina, Saskatchewan with the headline, “Tories blamed for 'chaos' in grainhandling system”, which states:
“Farmers have now missed record high prices...”. Without the single desk, no one is co-ordinating grain sales, transportation logistics, and the efficient use of port terminal facilities....
You guys handle most of the grain. Can you give me some quick comments on this?
Wade Sobkowich Executive Director, Western Grain Elevator Association
My name is Wade Sobkowich, and I'm with the Western Grain Elevator Association.
I've been talking a lot about the railcar capacity lately, in the media and to anybody who will listen.
The problem we're seeing is one with two different factors. It's supply of railcar capacity versus demand for railcar capacity, given the size of the crop. We have the biggest crop in western Canada that we've seen, and we are struggling to get that grain to our customers overseas. The railways are providing between 5,000 and 5,500 cars each per week. If you look at the historical numbers of railcars that they've provided within the last five years, it's on the high end. Many people will agree that we're providing a lot of railcars.
The problem is that our demand for railcars is well above that. It is true that if you look at the most recent week of demand versus supply of railcar capacity, we're supplying less than half the demand. Now it's important to understand in the most recent week—
Executive Director, Western Grain Elevator Association
You wanted a brief answer, correct?
Executive Director, Western Grain Elevator Association
Sorry; I'm going on and on.
Executive Director, Western Grain Elevator Association
Did that answer your question?
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
We had grain growers here previously, and they stated the same reason. I wasn't going to get into a debate on whether a single desk was better than the others. I might come back to you, but I have a question for the organic growers.
You mentioned that there's some new legislation coming forward from the Conservatives. It's called UPOV 1991, and I think you alluded to it. It's dealing with giving the seed companies more years, I guess.
Can you tell us how it is going to affect the organic growers and why you'd disagree with this legislation coming forward?
Executive Director, Canada Organic Trade Association
At this point, I can tell you that we're more in favour of UPOV 78 than UPOV 91. For the organic sector in particular, we need to see the ability to save seed to replant that.
We're concerned because some of our producers use crop characteristics and traits that aren't necessarily attractive to today's larger-scale farms, but they're essential for organic production. They are very resilient and dynamic within the systems that we use. To have those lost from the marketplace, if those are no longer being brought to market commercially, we need to have the ability to maintain that seed genetics for our growers.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
Do you think this legislation is being pushed from the big grain companies trying to squeeze out some of these smaller companies or some of these other varieties that they are not producing?
Executive Director, Canada Organic Trade Association
I wouldn't bring any sort of conjecture from our part on that at this point. We've definitely seen that the seed trade alliance is very much in favour of this, so there seems to be some strong interests there.
As to the rationale for why, I understand the commerce behind it. We just need to see some dynamic solutions that provide flexibility for all parts of agriculture.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
Thank you, Mr. Eyking.
We'll now go to Mr. Zimmer for five minutes, please.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
Thank you, everybody, for attending the committee via video conference and in person. It is good to have you here today.
Through the chair, I have one comment about marketing freedom. I can tell you that I am from the west, from British Columbia, and I have a long line of farmers who appreciate the marketing freedom for farmers and who appreciated the legislation. It's too long to even list. That was just to speak to that comment.
Matthew, I have a question for you. You talked about the organic equivalency issue. I know what you mean, but for the sake of anybody who's going to read what we talk about, can you give an example of what you mean by organic equivalency and the rules of origin? Can you give us a real-life example of it?
Executive Director, Canada Organic Trade Association
One example would be shipping a boatload of Canadian organic oats to Europe. They are just certified once and inspected to the Canadian organic regime. They are recognized in Europe. They can get put into an organic granola bar in Europe. They can get the European seal put on that for the European consumer.
A very innovative Canadian manufacturer making oat granola bars with Canadian oats, Canadian cranberries, and maybe an almond from California cannot send that granola bar to Europe under the equivalency any more because that almond is in there.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
Okay.
One thing I will say is that I've seen the growth of organic across Canada and what it's doing for farmers. I see it as a positive. It's something I definitely think we can work on and will work on, as you have mentioned.
I have a question for both groups. We see CETA and the opportunities it presents, but I guess the question I have for you is where are your groups in terms of capacity and readiness for this new market that's coming? What are you telling your members in terms of ramping up to address it to meet those new demands?
I'm from northern B.C., so we do oil and gas. The big issue with us is the shortage of skilled labour, and I guess I'd have a similar concern for this. Are you going to be ready when that market is ready? What are you doing to address it?
If you could both answer this question, that would be great.
Jean-Marc Ruest Senior Vice-President, Corporate Affairs and General Counsel, Richardson International Limited, Member, Western Grain Elevator Association
I think from a capacity standpoint, we don't see any capacity issues or troubles. It is a static volume of grain that is produced and exported from Canada.
The question then becomes, to what jurisdictions do they get sold? With respect to wheat and barley, for example, Europe is currently a large consumer of wheat and barley. The advantage of the CETA is the reduction of the tariffs that apply. The grains and oilseeds get exported around the world. This now gives us an opportunity to have another potential buyer for those products.
From a capacity standpoint, we're well equipped to handle it.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
Sorry, Matthew, we'll hopefully have time.
Just to follow up with that, is it going to be static in terms of quantities, or don't you see a potential for higher quantities going to Europe as a result?
Senior Vice-President, Corporate Affairs and General Counsel, Richardson International Limited, Member, Western Grain Elevator Association
What I was saying was the quantities will increase to go to Europe, but they're all grown from the same fields. They get shipped or handled through the same network of elevators. To the extent where there might be more exports going east through Canada via the St. Lawrence Seaway, etc., we firmly believe that our capacity, our infrastructure is equipped to handle it. At the port of Thunder Bay, the facilities are there. They have excess capacity, so we don't see any issue there.
Conservative
