Agriculture Committee on March 9th, 2016

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

I will share my time with Mr. Breton. He asked me to leave him one minute.

[Pierre Breton, Liberal, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Francis.

We talk a lot about border control, and we know that this role has to be performed by the federal government. As for cheese manufacturing, does it come under government control or does industry decide what products make it in when it comes to yogourt or cheese?

[Alain Bourbeau]

We don't have the authority to implement rules to regulate dairy product manufacturing. Those powers belong to the provinces or to the federal government. For example, the federal government regulates when it comes to cheese manufacturing standards. Quebec has provincial regulations that set out certain guidelines so that yogourt can be called yogourt. The idea behind having standards is not to prevent certain things, but to provide a framework and make the standards transparent in the eyes of consumers and assure them that, when they buy a product, if it is called cheese, it's not pudding. When they buy yogourt, it's not frozen dessert. Regulations do not prevent innovations. Regulations bring transparency and clarity for the benefit of the consumer. We, as a group of producers, do not have that authority. That authority belongs to the provinces or to the federal government.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

What I've seen is that all of us want to help the industry. I think it's in the interest of Canada, and I think the approach that we're taking is to try to make the best legislation we can so that you can succeed in your industry. The farmers can succeed and their families can succeed.

I thought I had a half second to make a comment. I have really appreciated the conversation from all of the people in the room here. I know that we're going to work as hard as we can as a committee for you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Longfield. I think it's a good closing statement..

On that note, I would like to thank the panel.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge with this group.

As it is 5:30 p.m., we will end this meeting and let the witnesses go. However, I would ask the committee members not to leave the room, as we have to approve the subcommittee's motions. It will not take long.

Please take your seats.

Mr. Warkentin.

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Grande Prairie—Mackenzie, AB]

Thank you.

I move that the committee adopt the first report of the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food and that we do that now. I move the entire report as a block.

I don't think there would be much disagreement if we proceeded.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

We have a motion on the floor that we adopt the report from the subcommittee.

Is that it, Mr. Warkentin?

Can I please have your attention?

Alors, do we support this motion?

Is anyone opposed to the motion?

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

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

I'm sorry, Mr. Chair, but I would like to make a comment.

With regard to the TPP, as you know, the international trade committee is making a study. Do the clerks interact with one another? I just don't want to overlap. We talked about efficiency here. I want to make sure that we don't overlap on the same subjects and whatnot.

Chris, we've talked about this at the subcommittee level, but I want to make sure we don't overlap.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

We'll ask our clerk to talk to the clerk of the international trade committee to make sure, as you say, that we don't have overlap, if it's okay with the group.

Are we all set with that?

Madame Brosseau.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

I know I came in late, and it's my fault. This says that this is the first report. Are we going to go through these four subjects and put it into one report? Is my understanding correct?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

We just adopted it as a single motion.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Okay. If I understand correctly, the adoption of this motion implies that we will carry out separate studies. We will conduct a study on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and present a report. We will then study the issue of grain transportation for a day and we'll report on it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

These are just recommendations. We will look at the time frame and such.

Mr. Shipley.

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

Can we turn this over for a second?

On the meeting today, I think we've all agreed, and we've talked with Lloyd for a minute, and this is not a study, but I think we all agree. Is there something we could put forward to help you guys in the government, just from the notes that the analyst has done? Is there something that you see coming out of the committee today as some sort of recommendation?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Ms. Lockhart.

[Alaina Lockhart, Liberal, Fundy Royal, NB]

Personally, I was looking for today to be a fact-finding mission. I didn't have any aspiration to make any recommendations today.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Madame Brosseau.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

We heard from four witnesses today whose testimony was very interesting and who proposed concrete solutions. As we know, a number of those individuals, especially among the Dairy Farmers of Canada, met with the government 60 times. I think it would be worthwhile to write a letter on the issue.

—not a partisan one—saying that we had this meeting with these four people.

We should act. We're asking the Minister of Agriculture to look at dairy proteins. We had a meeting today, and I think it would just be constructive if we wrote a simple letter, maybe sign it together, asking that the government move on this.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Mr. Longfield, go ahead.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

The minister will be here soon.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

I know.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

I think we have a lot of information from the meeting that we could take forward to him.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Are there other comments?

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

Let's let DFC adopt the ingredients strategy. Then maybe at that point we can talk about moving forward.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you very much, everyone.

Unless there are other comments, I will declare this meeting adjourned.