Agriculture Committee on March 19th, 2019

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

Yes, I brought this up with our last witnesses, and 2% sounds great, but then when you take in the fact that we transport about 800 million animals a year, it actually adds up to quite a bit.

But yes, I am glad to hear about that.

Mr. Lambert and Mr. Pelissero, it's great to see you here. I'm really glad you mentioned visiting farms, because you both know that in my neck of the woods I know Farmer Ben's Eggs, run by Ian and Jen Woike. One of my first great introductions to how supply management works and the modern-day egg farming operation was actually a tour of their farm. They were very gracious hosts who brought a whole bunch of local political leaders from the valley onto their farm and were very open to all the questions.

Your industry runs under supply management. I know you have a lot of political support for it. Are there ongoing perception issues out there with the public? We often see columnists write things attacking supply management. I'm just wondering, from your own perspective, how that public trust and perception in the supply management sector is proceeding.

[Tim Lambert]

Yes, we put a lot of time, energy and effort into not just the aspect of communicating to build public trust, but I talked about on-farm standards, although I haven't talked too much about community engagement through food banks and breakfast clubs. We believe very strongly in our product and the value of our product. To us, public trust is a very holistic thing.

We've made the move to eliminate conventional housing. One of the points I would make is that we often talk about the need to educate the public, and in effect, yes, we need to tell our story, but the public informs us, as a society, of what standards they're looking for, what they expect. I think in that is the responsibility for us to address areas of weakness.

There are always going to be critics of supply management. I worked in the beef industry for eight years and I worked in the pork industry for 10 years, and now I've been here for 16 years with the egg farmers. The system works. It returns a fair return to farmers, and in turn we have a social contract with the consumer, so it works.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you. Unfortunately, the time is up.

Thank you, Mr. MacGregor.

Mr. Longfield, you have six minutes.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to everyone for being here.

I'll start with you, Mr. Laskowski. You recently were a witness at the industry committee, where I sit as well, talking about regulations. You mentioned a little bit around the health of animals regulations, part XII, and the adoption from the trucking industry. Is there anything else you'd like to expand on there in terms of how that's being adopted by the industry?

[Stephen Laskowski]

I guess there's the generic.... We're accepting of those regulations. There will always be some to and fro about what works and what doesn't, but at the end, we have acceptance of that. We want to move forward with the regulation for all the reasons the other panellists mentioned.

The question then becomes twofold. One is compliance in the sector, which is always an issue, to ensure that the regulations are then followed by all. As I mentioned to the previous committee, regulations are always good, as they always bring us forward, but compliance and enforcement are equally important. That will be the other issue. The second part is in regard to training and training dollars. We don't want to look like a sector that continually puts its hands out and says we want more, but the Government of Canada looks at allocating training dollars on certain issues, and this is definitely an area of need for our sector. It's not just in general but specifically because of the specific training requirements to move livestock. This is beyond driving a truck. They're very specific. They're being elevated, and for good reason, but that requires a significant amount of training. Training dollars would definitely assist the industry.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Pelissero, thanks for having me at your farm. I had a great tour with you and Jake. The technology going into eggs gave me a whole different appreciation. Now when I'm having an egg, I look at the thickness of the shell and wonder about all of the composition you track on a daily basis.

I follow @JakeandEggs on social media. He posted something about EQA with regard to a presentation he did with OMAFRA, I believe. Could you talk about what EQA is and how that could maybe help with public trust?

[Roger Pelissero]

Sure. EQA stands for the egg quality assurance program. It was the result of probably 10 years of work with the provinces to come up with a logo and a mark that will go on egg boxes and menu items and where consumers can be assured that the eggs they are purchasing, no matter what type of housing system, have met the standards, which have been strictly followed and adhered to. It helps in identifying that they're Canadian eggs, too. We do have trade commitments that are given, so we know that eggs will come in at certain times of the year to fill our market shortages. The EQA program will make that link and give that consumer confidence. We're hoping, as we talked about, that will put a face to the farmer.

We'll also be looking at egg identification, which is happening already, with numbers on the eggs. The consumer could log in on a website, put those numbers in, and actually see that family farm. They could actually know where those eggs came from and make more of a link.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

That's wonderful. In Guelph, free-range hens versus caged hens has been the discussion. I saw the cages, and those hens are treated very, very well. Thousands and thousands have a separate compartment within the cage where it's darker and quieter, where they can lay and they can access water. However much water they need, they know where to go for it.

In terms of the technology around cages, how recent is that, or how prevalent is it? Is your farm different from a lot of farms?

[Roger Pelissero]

As you said, our enriched housing system, which has been in existence for six years now, gives the hen the ability to go to a nest box to lay her egg. It gives the hen the ability to go to a perch and perch there, with scratch pad areas. This allows the hen to exhibit a lot of its natural behaviour.

Our conventional housing systems are not the conventional housing systems my father had back in 1950. They're different. But consumers have told us that they want us to transition away from conventional housing. Is enriched perfect? No. Is free-run perfect? No. There is no perfect housing system. As Canadian egg farmers, we want to produce the eggs that Canadians want. They want choice, so we'll provide choice. Enriched gives that great balance between allowing that hen to exhibit its natural behaviour and producing eggs at an affordable price while taking care of the hen properly.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Tranberg, the Elora Beef Research Centre is just north of Guelph. They monitor feed and look at the health of animals. One thing I've heard from talking to some of my constituents who work in offices that support the beef industry is that offices can be invaded by people who are advocating against the beef industry. Do we know who the players are, how they get access to offices and how we could connect with them to build trust?

[Janice Tranberg]

I keep getting these great questions that I don't think I can answer.

We have built protocol for on the farm. When people might get opponents of agriculture who come onto their farm, we've developed a protocol so there are appropriate responses on how they manage that. I hadn't heard of people storming offices.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Guelph Police Service told us about that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Longfield.

[Janice Tranberg]

Can I follow up?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Mr. Peschisolido, you have six minutes.

[Joe Peschisolido, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Mr. Chair, thank you.

I'd like to thank the guests today for a very thoughtful presentation.

Mr. Pelissero, like you, I love my eggs. I say it's because of the selenium, but I think it's because my grandma would feed me frittata in the morning all the time. It was very tasty.

I'd also like to commend both you and Mr. Lambert on the changes that you've made. I think the dilemma that most folks have with the livestock industry and the public perception of it is that they simultaneously view it as pork and as a pig, as beef and as a cow. You love eating the stuff but you also worry about an animal that has feelings, that can feel pain.

Just like Mr. MacGregor, I have farms in my area. There is an innovative farm called Rabbit River Farms. You may know the Easterbrook family, who have taken egg production to a new level.

Can you talk a little about the changes that have occurred in both the poultry industry and the egg sector to meet the demands of people who want to have eggs but also are concerned about the well-being of chickens?

[Roger Pelissero]

I can speak specifically to the egg industry.

As a farmer, our first priority is always the care of the hen. It always has been. We are the original animal activists. We're the animal welfare people who want to maintain that our animals are healthy. That's the case for all farmers. I was in pork production before. I have friends in beef production. The number one priority of a farmer is the care of our animals.

In the egg industry we've heard the concerns of the public. Just recently we have a new code of practice that sets guidelines for every farmer across the country on housing standards and those requirements.

What it means is, as Mr. Lambert said, whether you're in Newfoundland or in British Columbia, every farmer is producing to those standards. When you look at those standards, it's not just the farmer groups that sat together. We had the Canadian humane society and the Retail Council of Canada. Several different groups sat down. Scientific research showed how we should be caring for our animals, the concerns of consumers. That was all put together. That's how we follow it.

[Joe Peschisolido, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Ms. Tranberg, you talked about the importance of bringing agriculture back into the classroom. In Richmond there is Kwantlen Polytechnic University, and an individual called Kent Mullinix. He runs the sustainable agriculture department there. He's put in a system whereby he takes about 30 or 40 young folks and tries to create farmers of them.

Do you think that's a model we can take all across the country?

[Janice Tranberg]

Absolutely.

[Joe Peschisolido, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

How can the federal government be helpful in doing that?

[Janice Tranberg]

Recently I was the chair of Agriculture in the Classroom Saskatchewan. They were building a curriculum to take agriculture back into the classroom and to fit it into the curriculum. I know Agriculture in the Classroom Canada is going to be here later. Another model farm is just being developed outside Saskatoon. It's the same thing, where you can bring students to show them how these animals are being cared for. I think that's an excellent model.

Beef comes from, as you said, a cow, but in the city I think people think that beef comes from the grocery store. We need to make those connections and pull the two together.

[Joe Peschisolido, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Mr. Laskowski, you were discussing the national supply chain for transporting animals, and you talked about building or creating stop places. I forget the terminology, but it was places where the animals can rest—

[Stephen Laskowski]

They are water feedlots.

[Joe Peschisolido, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

You talked about them being in Thunder Bay and—

[Stephen Laskowski]

—in the Manitoba and Saskatchewan area.