Agriculture Committee on June 6th, 2019

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

Madam Minister, we did not demand—

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

…the complete dismantling—

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

…any concessions. I am not laughing at all. For me, this is no laughing matter.

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Nor for me.

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

No producers here will be laughing. The supply-managed producers gave up everything and you obtained nothing in return from the Americans for those producers. I think that has been very clear.

Madam Minister, I will be yielding the floor to Mr. Shipley. These will be his final comments, because he is retiring. I really want to leave the last question to him.

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Thank you.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

TRQs are allocated to processors and retailers. The processors are linked to producers. Now, again, as you did with the environment, you're supporting the large retailers with an opportunity for a lot of money. Why are you standing by and allowing that to happen instead of standing up for the processors? Our producers will grow their industry only if we can grow the processors.

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

I understand what you're saying. I'm working closely with Minister Carr, who is responsible, obviously, for the TRQs. Right now, he's doing a consultation, because he's doing a full review of the TRQs, including those for CETA, the agreement with Europe, the agreement with the Trans-Pacific region, the WTO and, obviously, NAFTA. We are taking it very seriously, consulting our partners and, obviously, processors.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

You're the Minister of Agriculture.

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Yes.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

You're the minister of our producers.

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Yes.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

I am hoping that you have the authority over him around the table to support Canadian producers in supply management, so they can grow. Quite honestly, during the NAFTA, we gave it all away, without getting anything back in return. You protected a couple of things. Now we have this opportunity to give our producers some help.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Shipley. Unfortunately, we're out of time.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

We can stay another hour.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

We might.

We may run over by a minute. Is that okay?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

A minute is fine, but not an hour.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

No. It is just to give Mr. MacGregor the full three minutes.

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Of course.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you.

Go ahead, Mr. MacGregor, for three minutes.

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

I think what Mr. Shipley and I have been trying to get at with regard to the processors and our trade with the European Union is their intimate understanding of the local market. Retailers are just going to sell cheese, right? It could be European cheese or Canadian cheese. They don't have an understanding of how to maybe combine the two so that it doesn't hurt our local market—not to the same extent as our processors do. I think that's the point we really want to get across to you: Our processors should have more of that TRQ, because of their intimate understanding of the local market.

On Friday, I got the chance to go to Summerland in the Okanagan to the research centre that AAFC has there. It is staffed by amazing people, who are really dedicated to their craft and who are hiring more scientists, which is a great thing to see. I'm particularly interested in the work they're doing on soil health. The research on that is fascinating, and I'm glad to see that we are allocating more resources.

Minister, you have acknowledged that climate change is a huge issue. Our farmers have as well. What projections is the department doing with regard to climate change and the costs that could be coming our way? If farmers are facing more droughts and floods, there is perhaps going to be a bit more strain on the help they'll be asking for. Is the department looking at that particular issue, for the damage it could cause to our future budgets?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Yes, absolutely. I think I can say that we have, within our business risk management tools, the AgriRecovery program, which specifically targets extreme weather events. The request has to come from a province. When they have seen a drought, a fire or a flood, for example, the province will open the file and ask for the funds. For these types of programs, there is no limited envelope.

Am I okay when I say that?

Yes, the amount of money that will be made available to our farmers is related to the demand.

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

Thank you.

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

It's not a closed envelope for that type of program.

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

However, you are making projections for what those costs could be.