Agriculture Committee on April 9th, 2019

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

Mr. Chair, I understand your argument, but ever since this study began, new facts have been emerging every day. So, I cannot accept the fact that you will not allow us to table a new motion in light of recent developments and of the fresh evidence we have heard.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Mr. Berthold, the motion is not debatable.

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

You have not made your decision. You gave me the floor, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

I am telling you it is the same as the motion the committee already voted down. So, I will not allow it to be debated.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

How much time do I have left?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

You have four minutes left.

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

Mr. Chair, can you tell me why the Liberals are so afraid of talking about the canola crisis? Why are they so afraid of letting the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food talk about the canola crisis before the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food? It's totally unacceptable.

Today, we heard evidence from Mr. Vandervalk and Mr. Youzwa. Everyone is telling us that action is absolutely necessary on two fronts: the technical front and the political front.

We have been calling for the politicians to appear before this committee and are told no each time. We asked for this meeting to be extended by 30 minutes in order to hear from people and were told no. We requested emergency debates in the House and we were told no.

What is the problem? What are the people opposite afraid of? Why do the Liberals get frightened whenever we talk about the canola crisis? Why can't we talk about it, Mr. Chair? I find this absolutely absurd.

It is not complicated; we are asking for the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food to come and tell us how she plans to manage this file politically. We are also asking for an appearance by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

We have heard evidence from Mr. Youzwa and Mr. Van Tassel. Lots of people have told us that the canola crisis is a reflection of what is currently going on internationally. It is not just about canola. Trade with India, Italy and many other countries is problematic too. Unfortunately, whenever we try to talk about these problems and what the government or parliamentarians could do to find a solution to this crisis, we have been told there will be no discussion and those ministers will not be invited to appear.

Some farmers will be appearing this afternoon before the Standing Committee on International Trade. Farmers can appear before this committee. We are asking for the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food to come and testify, but we are told that it cannot be done. They are afraid.

Mr. Chair, this is unacceptable. I do not understand why, This is an urgent crisis. The people here this morning are calling on us to move swiftly and take concrete action immediately.

We are offering the committee an opportunity to get some answers and for producers to find out what is going to happen. Unfortunately, we are unable to hear what the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and the Minister of Foreign Affairs have to say, neither here nor at the Standing Committee on International Trade, for reasons unknown to me. And yet, it is an international crisis.

We called again for the appointment of an ambassador. That is the responsibility of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, of Global Affairs Canada, but we cannot have her here.

I am asking that we discuss the motion with fresh facts and I am told I cannot. People will be able to judge for themselves how willing each party here is to resolving this canola crisis. We, on this side, genuinely want to find a solution on all fronts and to work with producers to that end.

Today, producers have repeatedly said that, in their opinion, this crisis has a significant political dimension. For that reason, one would expect the committee to be able to hear from the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Chair, I am truly disappointed in your decision. I am sure the motion I presented today is not identical to the one I submitted before. Initially, our motion called for three ministers to appear. You rejected it. For three ministers, I quite agree. However, the thing to do now would be to invite the two ministers involved, who came up in today's evidence. I take it from this that the Liberal government does not intend to make any further effort to gather all of the information on this situation.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Berthold.

Mr. Breton, you have six minutes.

[Pierre Breton, Liberal, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to inform you that I will be sharing my time with my colleague, Mr. Poissant.

We are seeking solutions on the canola crisis matter. In recent weeks, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and the Minister of Foreign Affairs have appeared before the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development.

Currently, Ms. Bibeau, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, is working extremely hard and in close collaboration with the industry to manage this issue. We are working in partnership with the industry to make progress on and deal with this issue appropriately.

My thanks to the witnesses for joining us.

Mr. Murray and Mr. Van Tassel, you are from Quebec, so my questions will be for you.

You talked about harvesting once every four years. At least, that is what Mr. Van Tassel said, if I am not mistaken. I don't know what Mr. Murray's situation is.

How do the current restrictions on canola exports to China affect your stock and liquidity?

Do the Agri-Stability and Agri-Invest programs tools address the problems that you may be experiencing?

[William Van Tassel]

Personally, I do a four-year rotation. One reason is to avoid diseases that attack grains, particularly fusariosis. One year, I grow canola, another year, I grow soy beans and, between the two, I grow other grains. Like producers all across Canada, I try to follow the best cycle possible to minimize disease.

As for the way the current situation is affecting me, I will say that, normally, the level of canola in my silos is starting to get low, with almost no stock left. But it's surprising, but there is still some left at the moment and this creates a liquidity crisis. It started before last February or March. In fact, it is tied to the tariffs that the Chinese placed on American soy beans. The prices started to drop in May of last year. This drop affected soy beans, then canola. As a producer, I'm affected, given that canola covers 25% of the land that I farm and that soy beans cover another 25%. In both cases, the prices have dropped.

I will give you an example. Under the contracts that I signed for the 2018 crops, before these crises started, I was selling canola for between $500 and $507 a ton. Currently, I'm being offered between $430 and $440 a ton. For the same 2018 harvest, that is a drop of $60 to $70 per ton. For soy beans, the situation is less pronounced, but the amounts are similar.

As for the Agri-Invest Program, we're talking about 1% of the eligible net sales. Therefore, the lower our sales are, the less support we receive from Agri-Invest. We are using our reserves. This program does not really address the problem. We become eligible for the Agri-Stability Program when losses reach 30%. I believe that 30% of Canadian producers have used that program, which we sometimes call “Agri-Disaster”.

[Pierre Breton, Liberal, Shefford, QC]

Thank you.

I don't know if you wanted to add something, Mr. Murray. If not, I will give the floor to Mr. Poissant.

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

My thanks to all of the witnesses.

I was a farmer and experienced crises a bit like the one that you have faced.

I would like to know how you plan your sales. As we all know, there are variations from one year to the next, even if they are not always as pronounced as they are right now. However, they do exist and, generally, sales are spread out over several months to compensate for the losses.

How do you proceed?

[William Van Tassel]

I will answer and Mr. Murray can then answer as well.

In about November of 2017, I started putting the 2018 harvest on the market. I made a few sales during this time, but there is a limit to what we can sell, because we need to ensure that we have stocks in reserve. Last May, because the prices started dropping, I slowed my sales a bit. My sales can be spread out over 12 months, or even nearly 16 months, as was the case for 2018.

Some of my sales were at a good price. When we see the prices dropping, we don't want to sell too much, because then we will lose money. So we wait and we keep grain in the silos. Of course, I didn't pay back the advanced payments that I had received, given that my silos are still full.

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

Ms. Reynolds, your farm is different. It is much more focussed on canola. How do you proceed with your sales?

[Mehgin Reynolds]

As I mentioned earlier in my presentation, part of the reason we rotate our crops is so that we have diversity, so that we have ability to go into different markets with different commodities.

If I'm looking at every single commodity that I grow being hit with a lower price because of a tariff or a trade issue, then I don't have any tools in my tool box anymore to mitigate that risk. This is a huge issue, because everything that I'm doing on my end doesn't work if the government isn't doing what they need to do on their end.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Ms. Reynolds.

Mr. MacGregor, you have a couple of minutes.

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

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses who came today. I don't really have a lot of time for a meaningful exchange, so I would just invite you to submit further briefs if you would like this committee to consider them for our report.

I would like to add to what Mr. Berthold was saying. Just so everyone in this room can hear this, the last time we had a minister of agriculture appear before this committee was on November 29. I was at the Standing Committee on International Trade last week with Minister Carr and Minister Bibeau. We had our one hour. But Chair, and Liberal colleagues, I think what's very clear is that this is an evolving issue and we need all hands on deck. We absolutely have to look at inviting a minister. If ministers are so sure of their policies and what they are doing and they are doing everything possible, surely they can come before this committee and defend their policies. We absolutely must consider that at some point.

I just want to put on the record that it's April 9, 2019, and the last time we had a minister before this committee was November 29. We absolutely need to have someone.

Ms. Reynolds, I have a quick question for you. You gave some great testimony during our mental health study. I was looking over that testimony. I'm wondering if you could say a few words as to what kind of questions you would like the Minister of Agriculture to answer if we are successful one day at getting her to appear before this committee.

[Mehgin Reynolds]

Thank you.

I would like to ask, moving forward, if we can be a little more aware of what our actions and reactions will be. We always seem to be on the defence and I don't understand why. In regard to what's going on with canola, I'd like to know why the thought process did not exist when we arrested Meng that China was going to retaliate. That is what they do. We should have had someone in China at that point working on our trade agreement, so that we didn't get to here.

Moving forward I would like to ask what we are going to do to mitigate these risks. What are we going to do so that we don't keep being on the reactionary side of the fence?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. MacGregor.

Unfortunately, that is all the time we have.

I want to thank Mr. Murray, Mr. Van Tassel, Ms. Reynolds and Mr. Youzwa for participating.

That will conclude our meeting.