Evidence of meeting #113 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was farmers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Researcher Professor, Masculinities and Society Network, Université Laval
In Quebec, the suicide prevention campaign “Demander de l'aide, c'est fort!” is especially noteworthy.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
Thank you, Mr. Tremblay.
Mr. Berthold, do you want to use your remaining minute?
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Yes, thank you very much. I will be brief.
Good morning. Thank you for being here.
Your comments have been very educational and I am looking forward to seeing your PowerPoint presentation, which seems to contain many elements we have not had time to discuss.
You talked about preparing for a romantic breakup and all sorts of other things. That is a real problem in the farming world and in a number of other fields. It can be said that the repercussions are generalized among men who are not prepared for those types of situations.
The farming world aside, shouldn't each province provide tools to all young people to better prepare them to deal with those types of situations? That would be important. The agricultural world can be targeted, but that is a fairly generalized problem.
Researcher Professor, Masculinities and Society Network, Université Laval
Exactly.
Quebec women read a lot of magazines like Châtelaine or Elle Québec, which contain a number of elements of psychology 101, if I may say so, while men generally read Aventure Chasse Pêche, VTT Magazine....
Conservative
Researcher Professor, Masculinities and Society Network, Université Laval
—but there are no elements....
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Those magazines often do not cover separation issues.
Researcher Professor, Masculinities and Society Network, Université Laval
No, there's not much about that in the magazines, so men often have a long road ahead of them.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
Thank you, Mr. Tremblay.
Mr. Longfield, do you want to ask another question? You have one minute.
Liberal
Liberal
TJ Harvey Liberal Tobique—Mactaquac, NB
I'll split my time.
Thank you, everybody, for coming.
I'd like to start with the Manitoba farm and rural stress line. Do you think there's a need to reinvent the wheel when we have organizations such as yours doing work on behalf of agricultural producers that could scale up to do something on a national level? Do you feel that if the funding was there, it would be a huge undertaking for an organization like yours to assume the role of doing something on a 24-7, 365-days-a-year basis?
Program Manager, Manitoba Farm, Rural & Northern Support Services
It would be very possible. Certainly we would entertain the notion. Currently, we are funded by our province, so we have to operate within that mandate.
As I mentioned before, a variety of models could be looked at, such as one or two national lines that service English and French. There could be a model that has a variety of farm stress lines within each province that are all connected. The third model would be farm stress lines in each province that operate very independently.
What we currently have is not working because we're the only one out there with the model that has trained professional counsellors who are also farmers. There are many gaps across the country, so it would be of benefit to do a needs assessment and to identify where the gaps are and what the best model is to meet the needs of producers in each of the provinces.
Liberal
TJ Harvey Liberal Tobique—Mactaquac, NB
Do you believe that if funding was not an issue and there was the ability of provincial and federal governments to work collaboratively with industry and organizations such as yours, the model would best be served independently in each province or as one organization located in an area where there is a tremendous amount of agricultural production so that the counsellors are in fact people who not only come from the agricultural industry but also have a really acute understanding of the issues that face agricultural producers?
Program Manager, Manitoba Farm, Rural & Northern Support Services
I think the easiest one to put together is a national line in terms of technology, staffing and all those kinds of issues. One of the benefits of having a line in each province is that they would know their region best and would be embedded in the issues and concerns of the producers in their provinces.
Liberal
TJ Harvey Liberal Tobique—Mactaquac, NB
Really quickly, because I want to turn the rest of my time over to Mr. Breton, do you believe that it's possible to operate an organization such as yours in a rural area as opposed to a large urban centre?
Program Manager, Manitoba Farm, Rural & Northern Support Services
I think it's best to be located in a rural area because you're going to attract the professionals and volunteers needed to run the line when they have lived experience.
October 25th, 2018 / 9:25 a.m.
Liberal
Pierre Breton Liberal Shefford, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I also thank my colleague. I don't know whether I will be able to recover Mr. Longfield's minute later on.
Mr. Roy, you got my attention when you talked about socially recognizing and valuing our farmers. I think that is one of the important elements. I hear a lot about that in my community.
Could you give us recommendations? Could you tell us what more the industry and government could do to give those people their confidence back? They are extremely important in our society and clearly represent a very important value for Canada. Could you give us some potential solutions to recognize them better?
Associate Professor, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Masculinities and Society Network, Université Laval
I think that government organizations should adopt—if they haven't already—buy-local policies. For example, when a caterer is hired for an event, the government should make sure that the caterer uses Canadian suppliers.
Researcher Professor, Masculinities and Society Network, Université Laval
The government should promote that.
Associate Professor, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Masculinities and Society Network, Université Laval
Often, it is enough to express some encouragement and recognition. Activities could be created for adding value to agriculture. A bridge must be built between Canadians and farmers. In the countryside, farmers feel like they are bothering people on the road when they drive their tractor, for example, when someone on vacation follows them in their convertible. That person is on vacation, but the farmer is working. Those kinds of situations anger farmers.
That should be recognized. It has to do with civility, but there is also a political aspect to it. The government must ensure that its organizations are highlighting the work of agricultural producers.
