Agriculture Committee on Jan. 29th, 2019

[Heather Watson]

I sure can.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

I won't say it's nice to see you, but nice to hear you.

[Heather Watson]

It's nice to hear you too.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

You've mentioned the study that you're doing through your organizations, and I'm wondering if part of that study will track whether or not those who have followed.... Or have you noticed, I should say, those who you would qualify as having good financial management practices as being obviously less stressed or facing fewer mental health issues? Have you noticed that early in the onset?

[Heather Watson]

Yes. To be clear, the study is not officially starting until April 1. That's when we're allowed to start spending resources on this. It's what we want to look at: what management practices are in place, what the mental health status is, and whether there's a correlation between them so that we can identify that when farmers are doing, X, Y and Z, they seem to have lower stress, or lower this, or lower that.

Or maybe the opposite is true. Something we've been coming across recently is that it's really stressful to think about and start adopting these management practices. So we're almost thinking that a hypothesis would perhaps be that it's incredibly stressful in the short term when you're looking at adopting a management practice for your farm, but there is the long-term gain. With something like having a business plan, where a quarter of our farmers have a written business plan, the task seems very daunting and stressful, and therefore it's not getting done. But once it does get done, we're hoping that we can measure, now that someone does have it in place, that they are less stressed because they have their roadmap to success and a guide to keep them on the right track when their mind might become clouded in stressful situations, or when they're trying to weather a storm.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Ms. Watson.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Unfortunately, we're out of time.

Thank you, Mr. Drouin.

I will now give the floor to Mr. Poissant for six minutes.

[Jean-Claude Poissant, Liberal, La Prairie, QC]

I would first like to thank all the witnesses.

Mr. Dreeshen and Mr. Shipley will probably share my opinion, given that they used to be farmers like me. When we were young, we worked hard. However, we were able to stop in the evenings and on weekends. On Sundays, we could sit on the porch and chat with the neighbours passing by. Today, things have changed a great deal. There are fewer farms, but there are a lot more responsibilities and paperwork.

Ms. Smith, are our young people getting enough training in school to handle what's in store for them?

As we know, this is the best job in the world, but I don't envy them in light of all the changes that have taken place in agriculture.

Are our young people sufficiently prepared?

[Erin Smith]

I would say that we can always be doing a better job of informing young people of the opportunities that are out there and also giving them the tools to cope with the stresses they face.

One of the things 4-H is very involved in is creating career opportunity exploration programs, so that young people can look at the opportunities and the avenues for career development that are out there for them. Over and above going to school and learning the regular subjects they learn in school, being involved in 4-H will help them explore career opportunities not just in agriculture but also in other sectors as well. I think that's one of the things we're hearing from our young people—a need. That may speak to your question. They are asking us to create career development opportunities and develop programming around that. We can always be having those conversations with young people to help them navigate the career path and the career decision they need to be making.

[Jean-Claude Poissant, Liberal, La Prairie, QC]

Thank you very much.

My next question is for Ms. Watson.

Do you have any idea how many farms across the country are in a management pool?

How do you do promotion to attract farms that are not part of a management pool?

When I was with the organization called Au coeur des familles agricoles, the primary stressor was finances.

So let me ask you the question again. Do you have any idea of the number of farms that deal with a management pool?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Ms. Watson.

[Heather Watson]

That's a great question.

If I understand the question correctly, it is how many farms across Canada are adopting business management practices. Is that it? Or is the question more about our reach in terms of our farmers and our members? It's just to clarify.

[Jean-Claude Poissant, Liberal, La Prairie, QC]

For instance, on the farm, we dealt with a management pool that used to come on a regular basis when we had projects or to follow up on finances. It made regular recommendations for us.

Do you have any idea how many farms subscribe to such a system?

[Heather Watson]

I don't know for certain. I know that every province is different.

The way we see it is that we have a network of provincial-territorial ministries of agriculture, and specifically business development departments. I'm not completely familiar with how it's working in Quebec, but I know that across the rest of Canada it's more up to the farmer to reach out and to get these services and get this help. I think that's one of the barriers to success, as well. Sometimes the application process can be quite daunting, even for an organization that's fully staffed. It's even daunting for us. For a farmer, we hear, anecdotally, that it is quite difficult to access funding even if it's there.

The other factor is awareness of the program. The CAP program, the Canadian agricultural partnership, was launched last April, of course. I go pretty much weekly to meetings and give presentations, and I find that, for the most part, there is a complete lack of awareness of the resources and opportunities out there for funding skills development in farm business management or advisory services. The advisory services are there, but not the mechanism to gain funding in order to take advantage of those opportunities. So perhaps they're not being taken advantage of as much as we would like to see.

[Jean-Claude Poissant, Liberal, La Prairie, QC]

Is there any promotion to suggest that farms join a management pool or commit to sound management? Is there enough promotion?

[Heather Watson]

Yes, for sure.

Our specific interest, of course, is farm business management, so we focused on those. But we published a document—it's available on our website—that tells farmers exactly what's available to them in their province and through what program and how to apply.

In terms of people to actually help them apply to this program, I think that, for the most part—and again, I'm not familiar with how it works in Quebec—is up to the farmer to apply for the program. I'm not aware of a resource person who can facilitate that, except for ministry personnel. I'm not aware of advisers who do that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Ms. Watson.

Thank you, Mr. Poissant.

I will now give the floor to Mr. Berthold for six minutes.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

My thanks to everyone for joining us.

Over the holidays, I had the opportunity to go around my riding and to meet with a number of people. We talked at length about the mental health of farmers. Since we have started talking about it, it seems that people feel like talking about it more. Folks from suicide prevention organizations told me about the challenges facing farmers for the first time. They said that it was unfortunately one of the most serious problems facing their organizations. They are there to intervene, in general, in cases of attempted suicide and to respond to all those who, unfortunately, are thinking about it as the ultimate answer and need help. I realized that the problem facing farmers was truly very significant for those organizations.

Last November, when I attended the presentation of the program, I found it interesting that people are getting together to address this problem. However, 4-H Canada is not very present in Quebec's rural areas. I know that you are doing a great job everywhere. All my colleagues tell me about what 4-H is doing elsewhere in Canada. However, the organization is not very present in Quebec.

I was wondering whether, at Farm Credit Canada, you are hoping to have the same sort of agreement with groups in Quebec. I was also wondering whether 4-H Canada thinks that similar programs should be offered to young Quebeckers. There's no 4-H in Quebec.

Ms. Smith, would you like to answer?

[Erin Smith]

Thank you for your question. I'm going to respond in English. I hope that's okay.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

That's fine.

[Erin Smith]

We do have active programs in Quebec. We work with the AJRQ, the Association des jeunes ruraux du Québec. Essentially they are 4-H for francophone youth in Quebec. We also have a 4-H association of mainly anglophone youth, which is quite small, but any program that we are developing and implementing across the country would be available to them as well, absolutely, and we hope that they will be engaged as much as any other group. We really want to be able to provide the same supports and tools and resources across Canada. All of our resources and tools and workshops will be available in French as well.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

So we have that organization, but in Quebec, we don't reach out to as many young people as quickly. Would it be possible to form other groups in order to speed things up?

As you mentioned, we had to act quickly. As a result, we made this announcement even before the end of this study. I think it is important to act quickly when it comes to young Quebeckers.

[Erin Smith]

Absolutely. I think that when our plan is in place and our resources are available, we'll have a very customized approach to rolling out those programs and working with all of the communities, because, as everyone knows, Canada is very diverse and we have a lot of different needs in various communities. For example, in Quebec we're working right now to develop programs on the Lower North Shore for 4-H. Those communities have unique needs. We'll be looking at every different community and working with provincial partners to really make sure that this training and these resources are available and can be delivered in the context that's appropriate.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Since we started studying this issue, we have realized that there are many provincial, municipal and federal initiatives such as the ones you mentioned today. They are on the rise. Unfortunately, there seem to be no coordinated efforts.

At Farm Management Canada, you announced a major study for which you are looking for funding partners. At Farm Credit Canada, you have agreed to contribute to this study and provided your help. However, I am worried that we may be in a situation where a lot of programs or people are asking for funds from the same people to solve the same problem. Perhaps that can be a recommendation from the committee.

Ms. Watson, do you think it would be appropriate to create a national project to prevent money from being spent left and right without the left hand knowing what the right hand is doing?