Agriculture Committee on Nov. 29th, 2016

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lévis—Lotbinière, QC]

I'm going to give the rest of my time to my colleague, Mr. Shipley.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

I want to hear from him.

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

Thank you, Minister.

I want to change the subject a little bit. I want to talk about neonicotinoids. Grain farmers in Ontario and producers in Ontario have been hard hit because the Province of Ontario has taken steps to restrict the use of them.

This is going to be another quick yes or no. Since the United States has not taken any movement to inhibit them, and Ontario has—PMRA is the regulator—were you consulted on their choice?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Thank you for your question. I appreciate it very much.

As you're fully aware, number one, it's under the responsibility of the Minister of Health and not under the responsibility of the Minister of—

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

I understand that.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

I know you understand that. What takes place in any decision that's made....

First of all—

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

I guess I'm really just asking if you were consulted as Minister of Agriculture.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

I sit around the cabinet table, and I'm consulted on any issue that I wish to be consulted on, for sure. But on the neonics, if you would like me to explain—

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

Yes, quickly.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

—we have a science-based regulatory system. I spend a lot of my time, when I travel around the world, asking countries to make sure they have science-based regulations. We have science-based regulations in this country.

As you know, the Minister of Health has indicated there will be round tables. It's important to note that there will be people involved who use these products. There will be round tables. There will be places for them to voice their opinion.

I truly hope that, as has been indicated by your colleague, the agricultural sector makes its voice heard on what should take place with this product.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you.

Mr. Drouin, it is now your turn, and you have six minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank the minister and his department for being here.

I would like to build on what Mr. Gourde was mentioning. As you may know, I have over 300 dairy producers in my riding. Part of the issue now is that they're happy with the program, but they want to know how to access it. I said this will be worked out with the department.

Can you give us some sort of timeline? Is your department going to be engaging with the dairy associations in the next few weeks or few months?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

That's a very important question. It's a big program at $350 million.

No, the department will not decide how it's going to be spent; that will be done in consultation. We're going to sit down with the dairy industry. I hope and expect that with the dairy sector we will find out just how this money should be spent. That's what we want to do. We want to make sure that this is a bottom-up issue; this is not a top-down issue at all. We want to find out what the farmers really feel they need in order to innovate.

I've been in the dairy industry, and just as a small example, I milked cows sitting on a stool. The last milk I shipped went through a bulk system with automatic cleaners and automatic washers and pipelines and all that. There's no end to the innovation and what we do in this world and line to innovate. Either you're on the cutting edge or you're not.

We as a government, and I know everybody at this table as members of Parliament, want to make sure that our agricultural farmers are on the cutting edge, but they will decide, with the other groups across the country and the department and me, how this program will be put in place.

The same thing applies for the processing sector. We want to make sure that the processing sector is on the cutting edge so it can produce these quality cheeses in order to compete. I know you feel that your processing sector is every bit as capable as any other processing sector in the world. They have $100 million of federal funding in order to make sure they are innovative, and I'm sure they will be.

With that, when CETA comes into play, you will find that they will be able to deal with many of the issues, not to mention the 700 million new customers that are available in the European Union. This is a great deal for Canada and I hope and feel that it would be a great deal for the supply-managed sector, particularly the dairy sector. We will end up with a much stronger dairy sector in this country. That's what I wanted to see happen and I'm sure that's what we will see happen.

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

I know the young farmers in my riding are thankful, and they have hope for supply management. I know you met with some of them a long time ago. Thank you on behalf of them for meeting with them and for listening to them.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

On the young farmers, all farmers are important, but we have to be sure that we look at the next generation and look at getting young people into the agricultural sector. The demand for milk is expanding every year, and that's important too. There are many opportunities, and we want to make sure that young farmers take advantage of these opportunities.

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

I want to bring you back to last week. I know you made a speech last week at the Canadian Produce Marketing Association's event. One of its concerns is with the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. Last year we studied this issue known as PACA, and I just wanted to know if you could provide this committee an update on where the government is on this issue.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

As you know, we lost that a few years ago. We're consulting with the agricultural sector and we're looking at potential options, which do include a legislative proposal. We as a government are looking at a number of ways as to how this might be addressed. It's important to make sure that our agricultural sector is paid for the product it sells.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Is it 9:45, Mr. Chair?

I'll respect that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

I certainly want to thank the minister for taking the time—

[An hon. member]

[Inaudible--Editor]

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

That's all. We had to hold back Mr. Morrissey, because he was really coming at you, but we held him back, so....

We certainly want to thank you for appearing in front of the committee and taking the time. It was very informative.

To Agriculture Canada and CFIA, thank you so much.

We will now break to go in camera for our business session.

[Proceedings continue in camera]