Evidence of meeting #70 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 chicken.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
John Barlow Conservative Foothills, AB
Mike, maybe you could talk about additional costs again. We're talking about affordable food, the transportation changes coming up through CFIA, and the impact that may have on your industry as well.
5:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Chicken Farmers of Canada
We're all in favour of improvement on transportation changes. We're in line with making sure we're doing it for the right reasons, for the benefit of the animals. But also, as we've said, the biggest risk to us is Atlantic Canada, the transportation distances. What they were proposing would put a lot of farmers and a lot of processing plants out of business in Atlantic Canada.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
September 28th, 2017 / 5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Eva Nassif Liberal Vimy, QC
I thank all of the witnesses for their presentations.
My question is for Mr. Dungate.
One of the important themes of the next food policy is access to affordable food for all Canadians. That said, the cost of food has become a heavy burden for low-income families. As a former nurse and the mother of triplets, I have always been concerned with making healthy food. Since I am also a big consumer of chicken, I have a question especially for you.
To what extent do you think that the food policy will be able to tackle this problem and see to it that food remains affordable?
You said that chicken is the most affordable protein-rich food. Can you tell us a bit more about that, please?
5:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Chicken Farmers of Canada
There has been 12% growth in our industry over the past four years. In that context, since competition was much greater during that period, the price that producers received for one kilo of chicken decreased by 7%. As for the management of our system, the cost of the improved efficiency on our farms is passed on to the processors. We have no impact on what processors ask of retailers, nor on the prices retailers apply. It is their decision and not ours. We do our part, but the entire value chain has to act if all of the advantages are to be passed on to the consumers.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Eva Nassif Liberal Vimy, QC
Fine.
In your opinion, how will Canada's future food policy be able to guarantee access to nutritious and affordable food for all Canadians, especially in remote areas, for indigenous peoples, or elsewhere in our country?
5:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Chicken Farmers of Canada
We are already present in all of the provinces. Production is local and available in the 10 provinces. However, we do not produce in the territories. Eggs are produced in the Northwest Territories. In any case, we try to see to it that local product is available, insofar as possible.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Eva Nassif Liberal Vimy, QC
Ms. Citeau, we are often told to buy “local” products to help support local producers in the Canadian market. However, previous witnesses have mentioned that the fact that there is no precise definition of the term “local” causes complications.
In Canada, and for us here in Ottawa, can that term cover producers from Prince Edward County, the Niagara Peninsula, or even Saskatchewan?
As our country is quite vast, purchasing local products does not necessarily mean that those products come from our area.
On this, I would like to know what your recommendations are on redefining the term “local”.
5:10 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance
That is a broad issue. In my opinion, it would be preferable to put it directly to the members of the various sectors.
Many of our members have already appeared before this committee, or will do so. It might be better to ask them if local products should come from the region, the province or the community.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Eva Nassif Liberal Vimy, QC
Would someone else like to answer the question?
Mr. Dungate, would you like to reply?
5:10 p.m.
Executive Director, Chicken Farmers of Canada
Yes, if you like.
I don't think it is necessary to define the term “local”. The consumer will decide. If the consumer wants the product to come from his city, that's fine. If the consumer wants the product to come from New-Brunswick or elsewhere, it's his decision. To some consumers, a Canadian product can be a local product. It depends on products, production and companies. In my opinion, what is important to most people is that the label indicate where the product came from. They will then determine for themselves if the product is sufficiently local for them.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Eva Nassif Liberal Vimy, QC
Ms. Citeau, we know that the Canadian organic food market is ranked fifth in the world. There is an international demand for organic products.
Where is the largest demand coming from in foreign markets? Can we use current trade agreements or future agreements to penetrate those markets?
5:10 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance
Absolutely.
It is in fact thanks to free trade agreements that Canada is negotiating, hopefully, better access to international markets.
Traditionally, our biggest export market has been the United States, if you consider all products. Our second largest export market is China, with whom we do not yet have a free trade agreement. And there are other very important markets such as Japan, Mexico and the European Union.
As I mentioned earlier, a trade agreement has just been ratified with Europe. Unfortunately, there are still a certain number of non-tariff barriers to be dealt with. A large part of our exporters will still not have real access to the markets, even if the tariffs are removed.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
Thank you, Ms. Citeau and Ms. Nassif.
Mr. Drouin, you have the floor for six minutes.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
Excuse me, Ms. Brosseau.
Ms. Brosseau, you have the floor for six minutes.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Ruth Ellen Brosseau NDP Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I was really anxious to ask my questions.
Ms. Citeau, I often hear it said that we have problems. We have trade agreements but there are many non-tariff barriers. The people who work on the ground, in the embassies, at Global Affairs Canada, and at the Pest Management Regulatory Agency do very good work. However, it takes a long time to solve problems.
Are we currently allocating enough money and sufficient personnel to resolving that type of issue?
5:10 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance
That is a good question.
It is true that as soon as a free trade agreement is ratified and implemented, and sometimes even before, we see a decrease in tariff barriers, but an increase in non-tariff barriers. That is the case for Europe as well.
Today, our negotiators and the people who work on these files are working on NAFTA, the TPP, the implementation of CETA, and access to markets in China. If you look at the list, there are currently more than 300 obstacles hindering access to markets. One is inclined to think that we may never solve all of these problems.
I think you would do better to put the question to them directly. We also ask ourselves the same question.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Ruth Ellen Brosseau NDP Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
This may raise an issue regarding access to information.
This is for the Canadian Horticultural Council.
I've been on the agriculture committee since 2012, and back in the last Parliament we talked a lot about PACA. We haven't talked about it today, but I'm going to talk about PACA again, because this is still an issue.
In this Parliament, the 42nd Parliament, the agriculture committee has written two letters. We wrote a letter to the Minister of Agriculture in June 2016. We wrote another letter to the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Innovation before we finished for the summer break, and we never got a response, not even, “Hey, you know, I got that letter. We will get back to you.” It was total silence. We got absolutely nothing.
This is an issue I brought up when you guys were in government, and now we're working together, and even during the election campaign ,a lot of you guys promised that we would have a PACA-like system. It's even more important now, because as was mentioned earlier, we are renegotiating NAFTA. We have TPP 11. We have so much going on, and we don't have payment protection for Canadian farmers who are sending their produce to the United States. This is something in which I thought we would have the Minister of Agriculture be our cheerleader. I thought he was going to bring this forward, but last year we found out it is going to be the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development who is going to take this on.
I was wondering if you could explain to the committee what PACA is and the importance of having that done as soon as possible. Maybe you have some kind of insight on why this has taken so long, because I don't understand why. This seems like low-hanging fruit.
5:15 p.m.
NDP
5:15 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Horticultural Council
We agree that it is certainly low-hanging fruit. We are as perplexed as you are, if not more, as to why it hasn't gone through yet. We were very surprised to hear that the file was now under Minister Bains. We are working with our colleagues in the CPMA and the Fruit and Vegetable Dispute Resolution Corporation to find a way forward. There are still some requests for information. We made sure that all the information that has been provided to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food is also in the hands of the Minister of ISED. We are not too sure what the next step is going to be there.
For many years, Canadians had access to payment protection, which is the PACA in the United States, so if for any reason there was no payment for their produce, it being perishable and not something that could wait while something was sorted out, like a radio or a TV, they would have some protection for their product. The understanding was that a reciprocal agreement would be made in Canada. When that was not done in 2014, the United States took away that preferential treatment for perishable products in the United States.
That's what all that is about. Again, we're not too sure why, nor what is going on right now.
