Agriculture Committee on Sept. 21st, 2017

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Mr. Chair, if I may, I will read the following motion, which I will move next week:

That the Committee invite the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food and the Minister of Finance to provide a briefing on the government's consultations titled “Tax Planning Using Private Corporations” and how this will impact family farms and the Canadian agriculture and agri-food economy.

I want to thank the witnesses for being here.

Your comments are very insightful. I myself am from a rural area, a large riding that is part of the Quebec City region, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d'Orléans—Charlevoix.

As my colleagues told you earlier, a number of farmers were wondering this summer about the new Canada's Food Guide and the new liberal tax that will affect farmers. More and more farmers are concerned. I don't know whether people have also talked to you about it, but we have been receiving hundreds of letters weekly about this issue. As my colleagues have discussed this at length, I will put another question to you.

Canada currently has a agricultural policy framework that supports the country's entire agriculture and agri-food system. What difference do you see between the next agricultural policy framework and the government's upcoming food policy?

You can all answer.

[Dave Carey]

Having taken part in those consultations, I guess the one question we were left with was this. There's an increased emphasis on the environment and environmental sustainability, which we're very much in favour of and also on the public trust side. The only concerns we had were that those should be additional buckets of funding if we want to expand outside what the policy framework has traditionally been, which is about helping farmers grow, market access issues, things like that.

During the consultations, instead of talking about some of the things that traditionally we'd talk about, we talked a lot about environment, sustainability, and the carbon taxes. All well and good if that's the decision. We're all in favour of environmental sustainability, but is that going to come out of the existing bucket of funding? I think that's been less clear than in the other iterations of Growing Forward. If we're adding new things, is there additional funding? Those are the questions I heard from my members. It's very environmentally focused. Are we still going to have the resources for the other core focuses typically then added on?

[Tim Lambert]

I guess we find ourselves ourselves in a slightly different place. I would say that's because of supply management, so that our farmers are able to get a fair return for their investment in producing food. What that's allowed us to do is to look at environmental sustainability. Public trust is one of our biggest opportunities to grow.

We fully support the concerns raised on the other side of it, but what we have been able to do is embrace and invest in it. We think that's a massive opportunity for Canada globally. I've had the opportunity to speak on public trust writ large in countries as far away as China. I was invited to speak last year. Make no mistake; it's not just Canada or wealthy western European countries. The concept of trust in the food system is one of the biggest issues in China, because—back to the melamine scare—they don't trust their domestic food supply, hence we are speaking on that.

My point is that we view public trust, environment, and sustainability as a massive opportunity to grow our exports and to supply Canadians, with our focus being domestic markets. It's a powerful opportunity in our view. We don't see it as a threat.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Monsieur Pelissero, do you have something to say?

[Roger Pelissero]

I have no comments to add. I think you pretty much covered it.

It is a benefit of being in the supply management industry that we have received a fair return, and we fully support the other sectors of agriculture that don't have that same benefit, so we share their concerns.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Thank you.

Do I have any time left, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

You have 45 seconds left.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Okay.

What sustainable model should Canada prioritize?

Canada's Food Guide tries to oppose certain types of agriculture. That worries me. Dairy products have been pushed aside in favour of plants, but those two can coexist.

How can a food guide be created without putting those two types of agriculture at odds?

[Tim Lambert]

I think we did bring it up a little bit, and that is to focus on the nutrient-rich foods rather than picking plant versus animal. You're going to get pressure from Mercy for Animals and PETA. Of course, they have an agenda to promote eating plants rather than animal protein. I think that focusing on the science as well as on the nutrient-rich foods, rather than whether it's plant-based or animal-based, would be a powerful tool.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Lambert.

Thank you, Mr. Lambert and Ms. Boucher.

The question and answer period is over.

Mr. Berthold, do you have anything to add?

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Yes. Thank you very much for giving me a few seconds.

Is it possible to plan a meeting of the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food? Since I am a new vice-chair, I would like the opportunity to have a discussion with you within that subcommittee about how you operate.

We have had two meetings this week, and we have operated differently in terms of the order of the speakers. We could discuss this in the subcommittee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

I see no problem with that. If you want us to plan a subcommittee meeting, that would be possible.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

We will confirm that.

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

How are we going to plan a subcommittee meeting? Does the clerk take care of that? There is a new clerk. I wasn't here on Tuesday.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

The last time, there was the vice-chair—

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

Will we receive confirmation by email?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Yes, we will send it to you.

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

Will this meeting be held next week?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Yes, as soon as we can.

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

Okay.

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

Mr. Chair, for your information, in the time of your predecessors, the subcommittee did not function and we had to hold a committee meeting, but if people want to hold a subcommittee meeting, I don't have any objections.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

We have a new clerk, and I want to know what is happening. It means that I won't have to ask the same questions in front of everyone. We could do it in subcommittee, but if you want us to continue in committee, I have no objection to that.

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

We have three members on the subcommittee. That is where we plan our future activities and discuss the motions tabled during the day or the studies that will be required.

I think it's worthwhile to have a meeting. In the past, we have made decisions that have not taken into account the decisions that were made in the subcommittee. It is important to work together to plan our future work.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

We'll start with one meeting, then we'll see.