Evidence of meeting #143 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was asf.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Vice-Chair, Canadian Pork Council
Primarily biosecurity, like checking ingredients brought in from other countries. Another very important factor that hasn't been talked about much is backyard pig farming. I'm talking about people keeping a few pigs outside their homes over the summer. It's really important to make sure these people don't give the pigs their food waste, in case it contains contaminated meat. That's one of the critical points we're working on right now.
You've received several fact sheets that we handed out not only to farmers, but also to people buying a few pigs. The goal is to make them aware that they shouldn't feed their food scraps to the pigs. Right now, that's a very critical entry point to Canada for this disease.
Liberal
Vice-Chair, Canadian Pork Council
It only affects swine, primarily boars and pigs.
Liberal
Terry Sheehan Liberal Sault Ste. Marie, ON
Thank you very much. It's great to be here today. I'm on the industry committee as well as the trade committee, so these subjects obviously come up from time to time and are absolutely critical for people who make a living from swine, and for the overall economy.
Going on to biosecurity which, to my understanding, is one of the issues that we need to make sure we continually hold to the highest standard.
I come from a riding called Sault Ste. Marie. There are farms around the area, but I went to school in Michigan, and there are a lot of pork farmers from Ohio, etc., whom I went to school with. I had an opportunity to have those conversations about the importance of all of us working together.
A former trade minister, Conservative Jim Kelleher, once spoke to our high school, and about pork in particular and how some countries will use backdoor trade tariffs on pork. Even if it's not tested or real, the perception is that they'll claim there's some sort of risk.
What are we doing to work with the United States, Australia, New Zealand and other countries to combat the African swine flu and also demonstrate that we have very sound scientific methods to deal with it?
Executive Director, Canadian Pork Council
Maybe I can start. You've opened the door to a very large question.
African swine fever, globally, has clearly been within the purview of the OIE, the world animal health organization, forever. A number of us are going with Dr. Komal to the OIE's annual general assembly in Paris at the end of the month. The OIE have dedicated a fair chunk of time—obviously, there's a full agenda when you bring 180 countries together to talk about animal health—to ASF, and obviously lots of bilateral meetings will occur in the same space.
The idea, I think, at the international level is that there's lots of willingness to dig in on it. There's lots of expertise. They're willing to share, and you're seeing the OIE take a number of leadership roles to establish these international groups and international centres of expertise. We're trying to get one in the Americas, but certainly there's one in Europe and one in Asia already. They are trying to lend expertise to the local veterinary infrastructure to help it along. There are lots and lots of discussions between Canada and the United States, as you might imagine, on a near full-time basis.
We had the opportunity, at the time of the international forum, to meet with Dr. Shere, the CVO in the United States. Of course, as I said, we have fairly routine discussions. Gabriela is pretty much on the phone every week with the United States. We're all heading to Paris, so we'll have meetings over there. There's a whole series of things involved in that space.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
Thank you, Mr. Ross, Mr. Sheehan and Madame Nassif.
Mr. Berthold, you have six minutes.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Roy, we've been talking about African swine fever since the beginning of the meeting. For the benefit of those who aren't familiar with it, could you summarize, in 30 seconds, the effects of this disease and why it's so serious and harmful?
Vice-Chair, Canadian Pork Council
I'm not a veterinarian, but in a nutshell, this disease kills. When a herd is contaminated, all the pigs die. It's a haemorrhagic disease. The animals suffer internal bleeding and die. This disease doesn't spread rapidly, but once contamination happens, it's fatal.
Conservative
Vice-Chair, Canadian Pork Council
There's no treatment. Work is under way to develop a vaccine, but I wouldn't expect to become available in the short term.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
We need to confront an international situation, but every crisis has its upsides and downsides. There are opportunities for us, provided we can protect our borders and keep the disease from spreading.
I may get a chance later to talk about small pig farms, because I've visited a few. These small farms aren't subject to the same biosecurity rules as the big farms scattered all over. The disease must spread much more quickly through small pig farms.
Could you give us a brief update on China? China suspended exports from Olymel and Drummond Export. Is the situation still bad for those two companies?
Executive Director, Canadian Pork Council
The challenges that we're having with the suspension of the Olymel plant in Red Deer and with the plant in Quebec remain in place. They have not been resolved. The plants themselves have put in some corrective measures, and now those measures have been brought back to Chinese officials for their approval. The timing on that will remain to be seen. In some respects, it's quite disheartening. In other respects, we did, in fact, have a bit of a paperwork issue, and we do know that going into that marketplace we do have to have all the i's dotted and the t's crossed, particularly at a sensitive time like we're in right now. However, we are hopeful that it will be resolved in the short term. We took some relief in the fact that they suspended the plants—they did not delist them—and that it didn't spread to the entire pork sector, which would, of course, have been much, much worse.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
That's kind of a mixed message to send to all the companies that export to China. Even though demand in China is extremely high, the Chinese are prepared to bar shipments over incorrect paperwork. The message this sends to all producers is to make sure they fill out their paperwork correctly and use the right forms.
Vice-Chair, Canadian Pork Council
Exactly. You know about a few of China's quirks. This is one of them.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Mr. Speaker, I want to take this time to move a motion so we can explore this issue further. All of my colleagues have received a copy of the motion. It would enable us to learn a bit more about the situation and prevent it from happening to other companies. It's vital that Canada stand firm and show that it does want to collaborate, but that it won't let China get away with using these excuses for reasons other than trade, like political reasons.
The motion reads:
That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the Committee invite the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food, the Minister of Trade Diversification and the Minister of Foreign Affairs to update the Committee on the situation regarding the suspension of Canadian pork imports by the Chinese government and that the Ministers appear before the Committee on or before Tuesday, June 4, 2019.
Liberal
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Yes, Mr. Chair.
The canola situation has been going on for over two months now. We were made aware of this situation early this year. We recently learned that the pork industry has been dealing with problems involving forms. Maybe we'll have a chance to discuss that in greater detail in a little while with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency representatives.
It's important for ministers to come tell us what measures Canada will take to prevent these situations from happening again. We need to see all the ministers involved. This is a major crisis. We have an amazing opportunity right now, and we definitely don't want Canada to miss out. Politicians at all levels need to play a role. Specifically, the federal ministers I mentioned in the motion should appear before the committee so we can continue our study on African swine fever as well as the opportunities we might miss if we don't react to the situation swiftly.
I don't plan to talk about this for long because we still have lots of questions for our witnesses. However, I would encourage my colleagues to support this motion so we can get to the bottom of the issue and prevent any potential losses by showing that Canada's position on how to maintain trade relations with China is firm and clear.
Liberal
Liberal
Lloyd Longfield Liberal Guelph, ON
I won't be supporting the motion. I think we've just heard from the Canadian Pork Council that they're working with China and with the minister. There was an administrative problem that they're working on—crossing t's and dotting i's. This is taking away some very important time we have to talk with witnesses, and we also have industry reps coming in who will be able to speak to them directly. I won't be supporting the motion.
Conservative
Earl Dreeshen Conservative Red Deer—Mountain View, AB
As folks from the pork industry here have mentioned, Olymel is in my riding, in my town.
One of the critical things is that we get to a certain stage where various parts of the hog are being sent to Japan and parts are going to China, and there isn't a problem until all of a sudden the freezers are full. That becomes the scenario or the situation we have here. We don't know whether we're being able to find other markets for that particular product. Eventually it's going to plug up the system and there are going to be some serious concerns.
When we speak about the need to have an awareness by the ministers, which is what this motion is about, it's critical. It can't simply be, “Well, there was something wrong with the paperwork.” That is the issue. The point is that this is something that could have been handled in a day or two because it was just paperwork. However, along with everything else, we've seen what has happened with canola being dragged out for months and months, and we hear of other issues that are causing consternation as well. Therefore, it's extremely important that these ministers understand, from the perspective of the agriculture committee members, the significance of this issue, and that we hear from them and they hear from us.
