Evidence of meeting #52 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 animals.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Executive Director, Plant Health and Biosecurity Directorate, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
On the chemical side, no, but I would like to reiterate that we're not talking about changing something in a system that we put forward as evidence of mitigating the risks that India is concerned about.
Liberal
Executive Director, Plant Health and Biosecurity Directorate, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Yes, it's an explanation that we're providing about what we've been doing, which we think provides evidence that the system is managing the risks. Their pest concerns are managed through our current system.
Liberal
Lloyd Longfield Liberal Guelph, ON
I'm also considering what our role is as a committee looking more at process. We're not going to provide technical solutions, and you're not here to give us advice on technical solutions; the question is what we can do to make sure we're supporting both the government's objectives and the CFIA's objectives in terms of trade, which you're representing. Is there any risk that you see that we should be considering?
Director General, Market Access Secretariat, Market and Industry Services Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
We believe, as Dr. Anderson has outlined, that the existing Canadian grain handling system provides the assurances that the Indians really need to ensure that they do not have any undesirable outcomes. Ensuring that this is the case, providing assurances that we are diligently pursuing these courses of action, is presumably what the Indians are looking for.
Liberal
Lloyd Longfield Liberal Guelph, ON
And that they are in fact now suggesting as a model for other countries to follow, which should put us in a good position going forward.
Executive Director, Plant Health and Biosecurity Directorate, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
We are hopeful.
Liberal
Joe Peschisolido Liberal Steveston—Richmond East, BC
Sure, Mr. Longfield.
I'm going to follow up with Mr. Panday a little on the opportunities for other agricultural products in India. In my neck of the woods, in Steveston and East Richmond, and particularly the latter, we have a very thriving community of folks from India of both the Sikh faith and the Hindu faith, and quite a few businessmen go there.
Can you describe in a little bit more in depth, in the minute we have, some of the opportunities in India, beyond pulses, for our agricultural producers?
Director General, Market Access Secretariat, Market and Industry Services Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
The broad conditions that I outlined about what makes India an interesting and attractive market apply, I think, to a range of commodities and products from Canada. The growing middle class, the increasing urbanization have changed dietary habits. There's also a significant penetration of media and social media, which have caused people to see foreign behavioural models and foreign goods and foreign food as an attractive proposition in terms of both diet and nutrition and as a fashion and as something they'd like to try to consume.
there are opportunities in such areas as organics. There are opportunities, in terms of genetics, for—
Liberal
Director General, Market Access Secretariat, Market and Industry Services Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
There's a great interest in organic food.
In any environment where you're facing pollution, you start to see people turning towards organics to ensure a certain level of dietary safety.
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
Thank you, Mr. Peschisolido and Mr. Panday.
Now we'll go to Mr. Anderson for six minutes.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Thank you, again, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Breton asked a question about the size of the industry. I had a bit of time to look it up here. Saskatchewan alone has 15,000 growers of lentils. There are almost 100 special crop processors in our province. Therefore, it makes a huge difference.
Its development has been fantastic, because there really weren't many pulses grown from 1975 to 1980. I think their cash receipts for pulses generally were $50 million in 1980, $1.5 billion in my province in 2010, and it has grown significantly since then. Peas, lentils, and canola have been great success stories because we've had export markets; we have to export.
How long have you been working on the systems approach? You seem to indicate that you suggested it in 2016, but is this something that has been going on for 15 or 20 years and you're finally able to start getting through to them, or have they changed their perspective such that they're willing to consider this now? That seemed to be what you were indicating earlier. I'm interested in how long this has been proposed.
Executive Director, Plant Health and Biosecurity Directorate, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
I don't have the official response, but certainly the system I mentioned that we are putting forward in the proposal has been in existence for many years and decades.
The pest profile, or what were thought at the time to be the risks associated with the pests coming to India, has changed. As I mentioned earlier, some of the technologies that have been developed allowed us to demonstrate in 2015 that one of the concerns about something that was not being managed potentially through the system was in fact not even present. That's what changed the discussion with respect to that.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Can you tell us a bit about how India sets their phytosanitary standards? How much of a role does domestic politics, and if you want to call it science, play and how much can you rely on international standards for them to be making their decisions? I realize I'm not just talking about the on-again, off-again, side of some of these imports.
How reliable is their system? How much is it based on international standards, and how much of it is done domestically?
Executive Director, Plant Health and Biosecurity Directorate, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
It's based on international standards. As far as the science is concerned, I think we have good alignment with them, now that we have technical working groups that meet regularly. The discussion for the systems approach came up in the discussions coming out of the last meeting of the technical group from India that met with our CFIA officials. There was some acceptance to review that.
With respect to India in general and how their system is impacted by broader considerations, sorry, I don't have an answer for that.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
In terms of the working groups, then, who supervises them? Is that a CFIA working group? Is that something under the market access secretariat? Do you have a role to play in the working groups and their activities? How do they function? In different places we've seen, they seem to be key to being able to make some of these changes.
Executive Director, Plant Health and Biosecurity Directorate, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
They're the national plant protection organizations, the competent authorities from both countries, so there are technical discussions involving CFIA and the competent authorities on the other side.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Okay. I just want to switch, then, to the market access secretariat for a few minutes.
Can you tell us a little about your role in all of this? What is your role in the future in developing markets for Canadian products? Mr. Peschisolido talked about the opportunities that some of his people feel they have. Obviously, we have lots of room to grow.
What is your role and how do you anticipate being able to play an important part in this?
Director General, Market Access Secretariat, Market and Industry Services Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
The market access secretariat brings together market access and market development professionals in support of the Canadian agriculture industry. We work very closely with our food inspection agency colleagues and often provide, to use the broader term, the diplomatic side to their technical and regulatory role.
With respect to opportunities in India and the identification of India as a priority for the government, reflecting the size of the market, its growth, its opportunities, and its openness to foreign products, India is a priority country for us. We have an Agriculture Canada priority country strategy for India that we are seeking to implement. We see significant opportunities, and that's one of the reasons the minister led his first trade mission to India earlier this year. The size of the market and the major urban centres provides opportunities for Canadian processors and producers.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
What are those products that you see as having the most potential in the future? You mentioned organic, but what other—