Agriculture Committee on March 29th, 2019

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Hoback.

Now we have Mr. Maguire.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

I think my colleague pretty well covered the ground that I was going to get into in regard to the present scandals that are going on. There's only time for one question, and March 21 was too late to have had the emergency meeting anyway. We should have had our emergency meeting before that, before the international trade meeting that we've already had. We should have had this before so it could be dealt with.

In yesterday's Globe and Mail one farmer indicated that they're already in the fields in Alberta now. That's in the Globe and Mail, so you can have a look at that for yourselves. I guess it may be early but they're in the fields.

Canola is just one industry. I agree at present it looks like it's the only formal one that's being dealt with here, but if you ask the industry, they're very skittish on being able to manage this. How would you feel if you were shipping something to somebody and they decided, on what we think is a non-tariff barrier basically, that your product isn't fit anymore? Would you ship them another crop? That's why we're hearing rumours about some of the other crops that are out there as well.

I think that's unacceptable. All farmers want to know, and the industry wants to know, is what the plan is to get this solved. That's why it's so important to have these people appear before the agriculture committee. I cannot believe that the agriculture minister, if they asked her, wouldn't want to appear before the agriculture committee. It just makes common sense that we would deal with this here. If this isn't an agricultural issue, as well as a trade issue, I don't know what is. If it isn't affecting foreign affairs, then what would?

I think it's important to have those three ministers together, but we need more than an hour, as has been pointed out. I was at that international trade meeting when we were promised two hours. We could have a separate meeting with the officials, as well as one with the ministers. They both should have been held ages ago, and we've still not had either one of them.

I'll just leave it at that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Maguire.

Mr. Dreeshen.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Thank you.

I'd like to make a subamendment to the amendment to change the date from April 12 to April 5. I would then like to reinsert the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Minister of International Trade Diversification and the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

I've been on the ag committee....

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

You cannot reinsert things that were in a previous motion, but you can change the date.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Then I will change the date.

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

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, just for clarification, we do not know if witnesses will be able to appear before April 5, so we gave that timeline. Otherwise, we're going to have to come back and redo the motion to reinvite the witnesses. That was the point of April 12. We certainly hope that witnesses will be able to appear in front of this committee as quickly as possible, but that was why the April 12 date was there. That's just a point of clarification on that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Drouin.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

I thank the member for that clarification. However, it seems as though there is a serious lack of trust, and that is the main reason I am saying we have to deal with it. If the member recalls, in the notices of motion that I presented—it would have been three weeks ago—even with April 5.... I think it is extremely critical that this be done immediately.

We put out into the public, “Oh, we don't care until April 12.” Maybe we can talk here about the nuances of what that means, but that is not what our producers are looking at, their concerns.

I would concur with the chair and simply state the point about having April 5 as the deadline.

Then, to speak to some of this, I have sat on the ag committee, both when we were in government and now in opposition, for many, many years. It has always been focused on the producer, not focused on what CFIA might be able to do and that type of thing. I'm starting to see that shift away. We've seen it with Canada's food guide. We've seen it with the transportation regulations changes for livestock. We have seen all of these types of things in which the only focus is what the government departments are doing. We try to get in there and give the farmers' perspective on what is taking place, and then we get stonewalled.

I'm speaking only to the date right now because this is on the subamendment. That's why I think it is so critical that we at least let farmers and producers and industry know that we are engaged with this and that it is uppermost in our minds. Going from March 21 to April 5 is bad enough, but I believe that should be how we deal with that.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Dreeshen.

The subamendment is to change the date to April 5. That is what we would have to vote on at this time, the subamendment.

Monsieur Drouin.

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

Mr. Chair, I would ask the clerk for advice, just before we take a vote on this. We're certainly supportive. What I don't want to do is to come back here and have another meeting after April 5 if none of the witnesses we're inviting is available before April 5 and if doing this will cause more delay for witnesses to appear. I would defer to the clerk. How can we make sure that...? We want to be supportive. We'll support the subamendment for April 5, but we don't want to have another meeting after if the witnesses are not available until after April 5. We just don't want to have another meeting to again discuss witnesses coming back to committee. How do we avert that, to make it happen as quickly as possible?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

We would know by Tuesday, April 2. Then we could modify the subamendment if need be. That's how it could work.

Mr. Hoback.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Again, I'm concerned that you're saying Tuesday. No, you can start doing this today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Yes, she would, in fact, invite people, starting now, but we would know Tuesday if they are available.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

I'm saying you could know today if some are available and have a meeting tomorrow.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Well, I don't know if that's the case.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

You're the chair. You can do what you want. If you want to start this, I'm more than willing. My colleagues are here. We're ready to go to work. CFIA could be here today, later this afternoon, even this evening if they wanted to.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

The subamendment is for April 5 at the latest. It will give her a chance, on Tuesday, to know if these people are available. That's what we would be voting on right now.

Mr. Dreeshen.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Again, it's “no later than” Friday, April 5. It is not for April 5. My point was that, by stretching it out—and I understand what Mr. Drouin was saying. We need to push. We need to let people know. Yes, I can stick around this afternoon or tomorrow, Saturday, or Sunday in order to deal with this.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

I'm here all weekend.

Monsieur Drouin.

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

I don't think the issue is the members being here. I think the issue is whether or not witnesses can appear. We all don't have a problem before that; it's just that the witnesses have to be able to appear. I know that some of them are in Saskatchewan right now. I don't know what their weekend schedule is and I'm not going to pretend that....

I know. I'm aware, but in terms of the earliest convenience, if you're saying that Tuesday is the earliest convenience that they could show up, then we're ready to have witnesses show up on Tuesday. Again, I'm ready to have them on Monday or whatever day you want to pick. I just don't know how soon witnesses will be able to appear in front of this committee. I know we're all here, but we have to think about the fact that we need witnesses.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

We have a subamendment on the table. If there are no other comments, we can vote on it at this time.

I will read the subamendment.

It reads as follows:

[...] that all witnesses appear no later than Friday, April 5, 2019.

Yes, Mr. Maguire.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

On a point of order, Chair, with regard to the subamendment, is the only thing changed from our original amendment—

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

[Inaudible—Editor] the original.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Can you read the whole amendment?