Agriculture Committee on April 11th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Mr. Warkentin.

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

If we are limited for time and if there is an appetite for travel, oftentimes you can get what equates to dozens of meetings within a couple of days of travel because you can hear for an entire day rather than only two hours of time.

It's one way that you can get a condensed work schedule into a number of days and meet with hundreds or dozens of groups at least when you're travelling. It really does open up a significantly different working environment when you are travelling because it is a condensed work schedule.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Mr. Longfield.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

We have circled twice now, but I think the transportation has a very tight timeline on it.

[Joe Peschisolido, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Should we do that first?

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

I think we need to complete a study that we can send forward and in terms of allocating time to get that study completed properly.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

There's the next meeting, and then we will hear back if we can have a subcommittee on the transport issue of grain and if that works in coordination with what we're doing here. I don't know if it's possible.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

That's right.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

We're all into meetings right up to late at night, but it's something that would have to be looked at. If that works, it should take care of that side of the transportation issue.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

In terms of the TPP, not the least of it is that the Americans might not buy into it in November and then we will have spent some time on something that's not going forward.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

I guess we have to come to a decision. We have two meetings.

Madam Brosseau.

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

Chair, I know you've said that you're in discussions with the chair of the transport committee, but I wonder if it would be appropriate to table a motion just to make sure that you would officially extend an invitation to do a study on—

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

A subcommittee on that?

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

—a subcommittee with them.

I don't know what you think. Would it be best at our committee or should we try to work with people from the transport committee? We've done it before.

Right, Bev?

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

Maybe we did. I'm just trying to think of when.

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

We could probably ask the analysts. They were here. They have a lot better memory than I do on what we have done at committee.

[Frédéric Forge, Committee Researcher]

We had a subcommittee back in 2007 or 2008 on the listeriosis crisis. It was a subcommittee from the ag committee—

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

That was with Sheila Weatherill.

[Frédéric Forge]

We had people from the health committee invited, but it was actually a subcommittee of the agriculture committee. We met outside the regular committee hours. I think the committee was working on a Tuesday and Thursday schedule, so we would meet on Mondays and Wednesdays in addition to the main committee meetings.

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

I think we should just do it at agriculture, then. I don't want to work at night.

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

Just let me raise another point. I think that working together in having those sorts of discussions is always important, but don't forget that we're dealing only with agriculture. The transportation committee is going to be dealing with every commodity group that ships, and they will have different asks, requirements, and needs than agriculture will.

What I'm concerned about is the dilution factor. I know what Frank is saying; let's do ours and then ship it to them. On the other hand, as a minister for agriculture, I would be interested in knowing what the issues are for agriculture and transportation, at the cabinet table, with the other ministers.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Also, the word from the chair of the transport committee is that it would be strictly on transportation of agricultural goods, and we could give it that mandate, I suppose, if that's what we want.

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

We should just do it at agriculture, I think.

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

I think we need to do ours.

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

I think Bev is correct. The CTA review includes everything from airlines to passenger train service, so the transport committee is going to be preoccupied by the comprehensiveness of it all.

We have a very specific and niche element of the review, and that involves commodities that are agriculture based. I think it's important that we do a review independently and give it to the House. We can ask the minister to respond, but at least he will have in his hands what we heard from ag producers specifically as it relates to this review. What he does with that, he'll do with that, but it may be an important piece of information for him and a tool in his tool box as he goes out and defends farmers.

I think we should do it at our committee during committee time. I don't think it needs to be extensive, but I think we can do extensive work in a short period of time. We're hearing the exact same thing from a significant number of these commodity groups, so they'll probably want to line up. They may even come together and provide submissions to us. There are probably 10 witnesses that need to be heard from, and of course we want to hear from the rail companies as well.