Agriculture Committee on March 21st, 2016

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

My time is short, Minister.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

So is mine.

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

I'd like to hear about this screen.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

I just want to be sure you understand this fully.

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

Oh, I do.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

My biggest interest is to make sure that we follow the rules, which we will do. We can play games, but we have to follow the rules—

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

I'd prefer that you didn't play games.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

—and to make sure that the people involved in agriculture and agrifood in this country receive the proper remuneration for the work they do. That's my job and that's what I will continue to do.

The deputy can fill you in on what was put in place, I hope.

[Andrea Lyon]

Thank you, Minister.

As the minister points out, since the appointment of the chief of staff on January 4, the chief of staff has indeed been subject to the Conflict of Interest Act and all of its provisions. That means that she, like all public office holders, has an obligation to arrange her public affairs—

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

I'm sorry, my time is very short. I understand what the obligations are. I've read the act.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

She's trying to explain.

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

I want to know what provisions have been undertaken to ensure that this chief of staff, with her unique position, with her unique ownership of over $40 million in egg quota, does not find herself in a conflict of interest.

[Andrea Lyon]

As I say, the foundation for the obligation is the Conflict of Interest Act. In addition to that, the department has established what is called an “interim screen”. That is a process to assist in preventing any actual or perceived conflict of interest. An interim screen indicates those areas where the chief of staff may be involved in files and where she may not be. It also sets up some logistical procedures to ensure that document flow respects those sorts of guidelines and provisions.

This is what we have developed in the department, and that's in effect as—

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

Has the commissioner reviewed that screen?

[Andrea Lyon]

No.

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

No. Okay.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you very much.

That will conclude our panel with the minister.

Minister, thank you for appearing at the committee early in this mandate. I'm sure you'll have the co-operation of the full committee in facing the challenges, concerns, and opportunities that lie ahead of us. Thank you very much for coming, and thank you to your deputy ministers Meredith, Lyon, and Corriveau.

Thank you as well to our CFIA representative, Mr. Mayers.

I don't know if you want to make a short closing statement.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

I just want to thank you, Mr. Chair, for a lively discussion. It's great. That's what it's all about. Everybody has a right to know. That's one thing about this country: you have the right to know. It was a pleasure to be here.

I must say that I'm very pleased to see Mr. Poissant, my parliamentary secretary. It's quite a set-up here. I have great difficulty with French, and he has some difficulty with English, but we still get along.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you.

We will now suspend the meeting for a few minutes to change the panel. Afterwards we will have the staff explain the main estimates to us.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

I guess we're ready to go again, so we'll continue with our second hour of the panel. This time around, we have staff from Agriculture Canada to talk about the main estimates. We will start right away.

I will give you an opening statement, if you wish to start, and then we will continue with the questions.

[Greg Meredith, Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy Branch, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think we'll pass on the opening statement and give members more time for questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

We'll start with Mr. Arnold for six minutes.

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank the staff for being here today. I had initially hoped that these questions would go to the minister, but I hope that you may be able to answer them.

I come from North Okanagan—Shuswap, in central British Columbia. It's a very diverse, agricultural area, with everything from goat cheese to vineyards and some of the finest wines in the world. One area that's popped up with my constituents is that fruit growers in the area haven't been able to make use of the temporary farm workers program to bring in fruit-pickers on a seasonal basis. The limit that they are finding is that the countries of origin for these workers are only Mexico and the Caribbean. That has created significant language barriers, not with English to Spanish, but with other languages to Spanish, because the first language of the farm owners and their main workers is something other than English.

I wonder if the ministry is looking at doing any research or expansion of that program to include other countries, so that the language barrier isn't a challenge to them.