Evidence of meeting #59 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 labelling.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President, Canadian Produce Marketing Association
Smart labelling is in place. Smart labelling and access to information through the Internet or other means is there. Our regulatory model for labelling is a little bit antiquated in that we're not looking forward to access to information. I leave it at that.
Liberal
Lloyd Longfield Liberal Guelph, ON
We share time freely around this table and even across parties. We are focused on our sector and I think that's what makes this committee work really well.
I was at Cargill last week. I spent a couple of hours on site and we talked about what their barriers are. Here you have a company on both sides of the border, in Canada and the United States. They're processing 415,000 head of cattle in a year in Guelph. It's a significant business, and running one shift there is still opportunity. Their biggest barrier at the very top of their list is something that you mentioned, and that's labour.
It wasn't mentioned in the Senate report as a non-tariff trade barrier. Could you pull that out just a little bit more for us?
President, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
It gets into a broad issue when we're talking about labour. I think there are a number of components.
Part of it is making sure that there is skills development for Canadian workers. I think there's the whole issue of creating a better image for the jobs in agriculture and agriculture processing that are there. I think the other thing is moving ahead and looking at how immigration policy, temporary foreign workers, and a number of other issues are dealt with in a proper manner.
If you look at the relationship in terms of competitiveness between Canada and the United States, which may change, the United States always had access to a number of undocumented workers, who were paid well below prevailing rates. Now, that might be changing. I think there was nervousness in the farm organizations about the immigration policy in the United States.
We can't influence that, but what we can influence is making sure that we have an adequate pool of people to work, particularly in processing, meat-packing, which I know is one that's critical. That's a combination of image, training, and making sure that we bring in immigrants who want to work in that industry and really try to fast-track them through and make sure that the skill set that is needed in a packing plant is identified as a priority skill set in the immigration policy.
Liberal
Lloyd Longfield Liberal Guelph, ON
When we look at the market access Senate report—and we have a market access secretariat that was set up in 2009—is what you're talking about as a committee separate from the secretariat, or is it expanding that secretariat?
President, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
From their report—and it's their report not our report—I would suspect they were looking at a clear focus on looking at the regulatory and non-tariff barriers and to try to identify.... This is about talking to the Cargills of the world, talking to the processors, talking to the different sectors, because sector by sector, it will be different. Whether in your horticulture, grains, or beef, or pork, there are going to be different barriers. I think their clear focus at the start was very narrowly focused to really be clear and identify what the barriers are, rather than talking in generalities. I think that's what their goal was.
The next step would be working through the market access secretariat and through the negotiators when they're looking at trade agreements to make sure that they really have a good understanding of the types of barriers they're being faced with.
Liberal
Lloyd Longfield Liberal Guelph, ON
We have a limited amount of time left, unless we're still sharing.
They also talked about their value chain and the investment in the value chain, including feedlots, including right down through to genetics. Do you have any comments on value chain analysis for the beef industry, or for non-tariff trade barriers around that technology in the feedlot industry?
President, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
I'm a beef farmer. There's a bunch behind me, so I'm sure I'll get corrected if I'm wrong.
President, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
As a beef producer, I think I can say this. We have to do a lot better job of aligning the sector right from the genetics we're using to the person who is buying the steak at the end of the day, taking a look at the qualities that are being looked at. How do we align our packers, our feedlots, and our cow/calf producers to ensure that these are working together?
I think it's going to be more important as we move forward, because with some of the technology on genomics we'll get a better understanding of the types of sires that are going to produce offspring, and I think we can share information across the chain a lot better than we do now.
Liberal
Lloyd Longfield Liberal Guelph, ON
That's terrific, thank you.
I'll share any seconds I have left with the other side.
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
Thank you very much.
I want to follow up on the dispute resolution. That always seems to come to the top when we're talking about trade.
Is there a dispute resolution process that could be used so the model could be transferable, whether it's fruit and vegetables, or whether it's livestock? Can a process be put forward to the organizations that would help in the international buy-in of a process that we would be presenting to them?
President, Canadian Produce Marketing Association
I can start and say yes, there is. Part of that is ensuring a few pieces. One is a mechanism on an international level that the importer is required under a regulatory model to hold the specific licence so they can be captured. That's the first piece on the imports. From there the structure that needs to be created has to be enabled by the regulatory model on the sale and the transfer of product within that country, whether it's at a state level.... That's how it operates in Canada and the U.S.
An entity has to be created. The responsibility within the entity, and it can be a third party with the support of government regulation, is to manage the disputes. Those disputes, as they are managed, follow international law. When a decision is made, that decision is bound by Canadian courts as well as an international court if there is a concern, and the parties are able to go down that route.
President, Canadian Produce Marketing Association
In Canada and the U.S., and for fresh produce only—
President, Canadian Produce Marketing Association
—but not Mexico. We could look at creating that model globally, but it needs government investment to get there.
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
Can you provide us with a recommendation at the end of this for some of those going forward, as part of a report we would have?
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
I want to go back.
When we were in the States it was interesting because the Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, had just been appointed. On numerous occasions it was explained to us that the map he took to the President carried significant weight.
My point is that the map showed the significance of trade in the agriculture sector between our two countries. I think, as it was in COOL—and I see the beef guys here—it took an incredible amount of co-operation between government and the producer organizations, beef and pork particularly, to finally bring it to a resolution; it took forever. That is part of the issue of sleeping with a giant, I guess.
I think the more we can get some co-operative regulations, the more we can get security of understanding and trust between us, the better it will always be.
Should the Regulatory Cooperation Council still exist? Can it be an effective tool?
President, Canadian Produce Marketing Association
We were involved with the RCC at the very beginning. Some very strong work around inspection modernization came out of that.
As Mr. Bonnett noted earlier, it comes down to the issues that are put into the mix. You can create the infrastructure, but the issues are key on what the expected outcomes are and of course the top-down approach that everyone is aware of. The Prime Minister and the President are looking for answers to find an alignment and synergy on how our countries operate.
If you have those elements and you have the right issues, it's successful. The challenge is putting the right issues in play.
President, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
I would agree with that. I think identifying that mandate is critical.
I have a couple of points I want to make on your other comments. The day the President announced he was pulling out of NAFTA, I was in Iowa with some of our staff. Some 100 letters went from farm organizations in the States right into the White House that day, so I think that reinforces the importance of that appointment.
The other thing goes back to the dispute resolution regulation. I think two levels of dispute resolution are needed in these agreements: company to company, and importer to exporter. We also have those broader issues, whether it be COOL or softwood lumber, that fall under the WTO dispute resolution process, which should take a look at how we streamline that process. It's effective, but it's cumbersome. Those two levels have to be dealt with.
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
This next question could be my final one, Mr. Bonnett. You did mention how expensive it is to get the registration of generic inputs. In the Agricultural Growth Act, we tried to deal with the registration of chemicals and inputs, whether that was for livestock, herbicides, or veterinary drugs directorate products, but that was on the original ones, on getting the original patents for registration.
Can you give us some recommendations as to how we might help? It continually comes up. How could we get more effective and competitively priced generic products for our farmers in Canada? If both of you have some thoughts and recommendations for what you would put in, that would be very helpful.
Liberal
President, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
I'll be very quick.
We can provide you with that information. Bob Friesen is sitting behind me, and I know that he's been working on that file extensively.
On both the registration of the primary products and the registration of generics, I think we have to take a look at how we harmonize between Canada and Mexico and the United States to make sure we follow the same processes and recognize the information provided in each of the countries for the background research.
