Agriculture Committee on Nov. 30th, 2017

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

I can assure you, Mr. McCauley, that there has been some discussion between ministers on the food guide.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

That's what I want to hear. Great.

Industry has commented that they weren't consulted by Health Canada like they had been in the past. Was that part of your discussion with the health minister as well?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

I cannot indicate whether the health minister did or did not consult with people. I expect they did. All I can respond to is what we did in Agriculture and Agri-Food, but as you know, it's under the Department of Health.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Right, but you have expressed industry's concerns to Health Canada about the sudden change after so many years of showing that Canadian beef is a good part of a person's diet, as opposed to moving away from that?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

I had some views, yes.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Very loud views, I hope. I'm giving you a chance to shine here, to say, “I stood up for agriculture.” That's what I want to hear.

Quickly, one of the issues we have in the west is obviously the carbon tax. A lot of our farm items are exported, of course, and the people we're exporting to do not have a carbon tax, which makes our exports less competitive. I wonder if you could comment about what adjustments we're doing for our farm industry to offset this uncompetitive added fee and added tax.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Thank you very much.

As you know, there are certain fuels and stuff exempt, but without a doubt, you're also aware that any money collected is returned to the province, and it's up to the province to decide whether it's allocated back to the farmers. You know what took place in British Columbia. It was allocated back to the farmers. That's the decision by the provincial government—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Well, not fully.

[An hon. member]

You're right.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

In Alberta, we see—

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Are you telling me that farmers were not compensated fully?

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

If you look at it, they were charged GST, and the new proof out by the Fraser Institute shows that—

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Well, I was a farmer before I came here.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

There's never enough rain or there's always too much rain. I've heard it from farmers.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Oh, no. Well....

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Would you commit to removing the GST from carbon levies across the country?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Well, of course as you.... I mean, we're having an interesting discussion, and of course, as you know, decisions are made by cabinet, but that would have to be a decision of the Minister of Finance.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. McCauley, and thank you, Mr. MacAulay.

Now we'll move to Mr. Longfield for six minutes.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the minister and his officials for being here.

I want to drill in a little more on the Canadian agricultural partnership. You mentioned the gap that existed in the previous government.

There was a period of time when funds weren't moving and then the application period would kick in, so there was another delay in getting funds into the marketplace as you waited for applications to come in, to the point where, in the last funding cycle, before I was a member of Parliament, the agriculture community in Guelph was asking if, when you implement programs in future years, you could back-end load them, because they couldn't be ready in time for the rollouts. There was an expectation that we were going to be late on getting rollouts.

Could you talk about what's being done on the bilaterals in order to keep a smooth flow of funds going into innovation and the other programs that we have under the Canadian agricultural partnership?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Mr. Longfield, you're fully aware of what takes place in innovation and how important it is that the money keeps flowing. Of course, when the consultations started, one of the first things I was warned about was to make sure that we did not have the lapse that we had previously, because it hurts.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Yes.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

It hurts innovation and it hurts research. It hurts all the programs done under Growing Forward 2 that now are under the CAP program.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

We felt the pain.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

What is taking place right now is that in the first part of the year all the provinces will have agreements with the Government of Canada, and on April 1.... No, the programs will be applied for before April 1: we will be able to roll out money after April 1 to make sure we have continual flow. Being from Guelph, you're more than aware of how important funding is. It's to make sure that we continue the funding. Yes, that will happen.