Agriculture Committee on Feb. 5th, 2019

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

I agree.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Are there other comments on the motion on the table?

If not, we shall proceed.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

If there are no other comments.... My interest in this is the fact that there are so many Canadians consuming it, and it's growing. Trust me, it is growing. Is it in our interest to simply ignore the problem and say that we're just going to keep it illegal and you can take your chances, or is it in the interest of the government, from a public health perspective, to actually look at how other jurisdictions regulate this and attempt to keep it safe?

I think that's what the role of our committee is. It's not to come to a conclusion one way or the other, but to study the fact that this happens in Canada. It's an unregulated market. Other jurisdictions have regulated it. Are we just going to ignore it and let people kind of take their own lives in their hands? There are varying degrees of safety standards. That's my interest here from a public health and safety perspective. The government can play a real role in establishing standards for something that does exist. It's not going to help us if we just turn a blind eye to it.

That's how I respond.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Mr. Poissant, you have the floor.

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

There were cases in the past. Raw milk was used to make cheese that wound up on shelves, and it caused serious problems. Some producers also drink their milk raw, directly. They are unwittingly exposing themselves to this sort of problem, but the government is not responsible for their actions.

More thought has to be put into protecting citizens' health.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Mr. Longfield.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

I move to adjourn the debate.

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

Yes, instead of taking a decision....

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

We have committee business coming. We have witnesses.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

There is a motion on the floor to adjourn debate.

(Motion agreed to)

We shall adjourn debate, and we shall now....

Mr. MacGregor.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

With respect to Mr. Longfield, we're not allowed to talk about committee business to the public.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

I have a point of order. The debate on this issue has been adjourned.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

You have two minutes and 40 seconds. Say whatever you want.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

I'm just making that comment. We're not allowed to speak about in camera meetings. This is an opportunity for us to actually deliberate in public, but point taken.

I'm sorry for that interjection. If you want, you can speak a little bit in the two minutes that you have remaining, and I also invite you to submit greater details as a brief. You've touched on indigenous food sovereignty. What are some of the key points you would like to see included in the development of a national food policy for Canada? I held consultations on this with my community back in August 2017. Here we are in 2019, and we're still waiting for it. What are some of the key points you would like to see really highlighted with respect to indigenous food sovereignty?

[Sheri Longboat]

I have a few, and then my colleagues may want to add some as well.

[Hannah Tait Neufeld]

Sure.

[Sheri Longboat]

One thing that's emerging from the communities is that those policies be place-based policies that reflect local dynamics and also local social, cultural, political and economic realities within those regions, because of great diversity. That would be the number one element. We need to ensure that they are engaged and that they are reflective of those communities.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Mr. Penner.

[Stephen Penner]

It is a very large job to take on, to see that we develop regional and local food sovereignty realities that are already there. The knowledge is there. It's all there, but we don't recognize it. People feel like they're failing when they're not keeping to the Canada food guides. They eat too much caribou; they're not supposed to eat too much protein. I think it's really important to give the power back to communities, in a good way, from a government's perspective—to make the government more consultative and collaborative.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Okay.

[Hannah Tait Neufeld]

I'll just add a final point. I think it's also important to consult directly with communities and get perspectives from the ones who are really hungry to initiate change in their communities and from some of the ones who have been very successful. I think it's really important to listen to that grassroots voice, because it's going to involve incorporating a number of different sectors, providing funding, and also providing support for education in this area, to get young farmers more interested in this field.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. MacGregor.

Mr. Drouin, you have six minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for being here on this important study.

Mr. Penner, I'll start with you. I am interested in northern agriculture, and some of the trends that are happening. I'd be curious to find out about the impacts of climate change. With my brief experience—not having worked on agriculture with first nations communities, but on energy—I know that winter roads would impact access to energy, in having them move from diesel power to solar power.

I know we have a program for food, nutrition north, but do some first nations access foods through winter roads?

[Stephen Penner]

That's very common. I used to work for the North West Company, in a former life. They were primarily involved with the feedback on nutrition north. Nutrition north does not serve the communities well. As far as winter roads are concerned, they last for shorter and shorter periods, which means the communities rely upon those services more and more in their food source. They don't travel south as much, because there are no winter roads. Thus, they are relying upon imported foods, foods that don't make them healthy. It correlates directly back to that.

That's one aspect of climate change, but when we look at the Fort McPherson first nation in the Yukon, they don't have the caribou running anymore in that community. They rely upon another Gwich'in community up in Old Crow to support them by sending caribou down to them. There is no longer that migration pattern where they hunt caribou. That's a definite huge impact of climate change on resources that they can't manage to climb over without the co-operation that happens naturally among the Gwich'in, the Cree and any community. They form those inter-tribal relationships, and they have been there forever.

We need to have some support systems for that, and recognize it. It's quite difficult, but climate change affects seals and all sorts of different marine animals. With the salmon runs from the Yukon, sometimes they have lots of salmon, and sometimes the salmon don't come up to the Yukon because they stop in Alaska.

These are things that have been studied, but they aren't actually integrated into the formalized agricultural systems of Canada. If we can tease out that information through studies and base it on empirical facts.... We always talk about what matters. It is through having that information and doing the studies that give us the information that we can form good policies.