Agriculture Committee on May 28th, 2018

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Yes, we voted but we didn't get what we voted for.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

—a transportation system in place that works to make sure we take care of our environment and increase our GDP at the same time. That's exactly what we are doing.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Can you tell Canadian farmers how much the carbon tax is going to cost them?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

I met a lot of Canadian farmers just three or four days ago. They were elated at what we were doing, even though you voted against the bill—

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

You're talking to Canadian farmers.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

—but you can answer for that in the next election. We feel that Bill C-49 was vital to the agricultural sector.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

We're talking about the carbon tax.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

We also feel that—

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Can you tell me what the carbon tax is going to cost the Canadian farmer?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

—taking care of our water and soil is also vitally important, and we've done that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

John, it's been a privilege.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

This is a very interesting conversation. Unfortunately, we have to move on.

Mr. Peschisolido, you have up to six minutes.

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

Mr. Chair, thank you.

Minister, it's always great to have you here and to hear you answer in a very thorough, thoughtful manner.

Minister, you recall that a couple of years back you visited the Hogler farm in Steveston—Richmond East, and you mentioned that you recently visited Korea, Japan, and China. A lot of those folks are interested in expanding into those markets.

Can you tell them what you heard on these trips and also give them advice and tips on how they can expand into these emerging markets?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Joe, thank you very much.

We had some farmers and exporters from Canada exporting the very products that you and I looked at on that farm: cucumbers, beets, and these types of things. There is a market for that too. Without question the exporters in this country fully understand that the market is there for these products.

We can produce those products as well as we can produce canola, beef, and pork, and all these other things. It was heartwarming to see. We had a function at the embassy with a lot of importers from China. The interest that the importers had in the green products that are smaller, like cucumbers and beets and that type of thing, and the demand for that... When you look at the population of China and the expansion of the middle class—it's the population of this country every year with money to buy the products that you and I had today for dinner—they want the product.

In a nutshell, these people made sure that the importers in China understood we can produce these high-quality products, and they were done up in a really grand fashion. I'm so proud to see that. Without a doubt they will be selling a lot of these products in China but again it's important to be there.

They were there and they had their products and they were showing their products and they're indicating how they're produced. They are concerned about the environment in China too. They want us to take care of our environment, and we are. They also want the quality products. They want to make sure they have a safe product. Without a doubt the producers or the exporters and the importers we had there were impressed with what they saw. I'm glad you brought that up. It was interesting, to say the very least.

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

Minister, earlier on Monsieur Breton talked about the dairy farm investment program. Another individual you met a year ago or so, is from the Savage farm. They have a dairy farm in east Richmond and they were able to obtain funding under the dairy farm investment program to innovate, to go into organic products.

Can you talk a little about how this program has been used, particularly in B.C.?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Of course, right across the country—and you mentioned organic—as you know, we've supplied the funding for the organic standards, and that's so important, too. It's important to realize, when you talk about organic milk, that the truth is that market is expanding, too, so these people are on the cutting edge in a lot of different ways. But we import as much organic product as we export, so it's important that we increase our production in that area. I believe the programs we've put together...and you're talking about the $250-million and the $100-million programs that let farmers innovate. With this, of course, it will enable the farmers to put robots in to milk the cows. They'll be able to put in the automatic cleaners. It will just make them more efficient and be able to handle the product more.

It's interesting, when you watch these programs...and I've been in a number of barns. Of course, it's automatic. The cow goes in when it wishes to be milked, not when you decide you're going to milk it. All of these things create more efficiency, more production, and more dollars for farmers. That's what the basis of the program is all about, and that's what we want to make sure continues.

What you're talking about in B.C. is just great. Of course, they can produce a lot of these green products, too—the smaller products that you mentioned first.

On the dairy side, they would become more efficient. On the cucumber and other programs that we put in place, we're always working to make sure that people in other parts of the world understand what we have and the quality that we have and how safe it is. Again, as John said, the investment in CFIA is so vitally important to make sure that the product is safe, and that's what you have to do if you're sitting in China. Safe food, anywhere, is vitally important.

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

Minister, as you know, the committee has been studying climate change and how we can improve and advance agriculture, both locally and in exporting.

Can you talk to the committee a bit about what you and the ministry have done in investments to deal with climate change?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

As you're fully aware, and what you canvassed on, was to make sure that you dealt with the environment and the economy hand in hand. Of course, that's why we put a number of different programs in place, which we canvassed on, such as a price on carbon. People understand that we have only one place to live. You also understand that before we came to power there had been massive cuts, millions and millions of dollars, in science research in the agricultural sector.

As you know, we put $100 million back into science and research, which is vitally important. Without this kind of research you would never be able to, let's say, produce the canola seed, which was produced by Agriculture and Agri-Food scientists. But there are so many other ways to improve our environment and increase our productivity and make sure there is no loss to the agricultural sector. Land management alone is one area where a lot of money can be lost. Precision agriculture is the system that makes sure that all these things are so interesting, but so valuable, and help the bottom line.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Peschisolido, and Mr. Minister.

Now we have Mr. Dreeshen for five minutes.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and welcome to the minister.

What I'm going to refer to is page 29 of CFIA's departmental plan for 2018-19. In that, there is a relationship that speaks to the actual expenditures of 2014-15, which is the last year of the Conservatives, and then it shows and goes through the planned expenditures and the planned full-time equivalents for the next three years and planned spending for the Liberals. In that, when we deal with the expenditure side, one out of 20 of the categories showed an increase. In 19 out of 20 there were less funds.

On the full-time equivalents, three times out of 20, there were increased full-time equivalents, and 17 times out of 20 there were fewer full-time equivalents. On April 16, 2018, when we discussed trade initiatives, I indicated that when you look at the budgets, it looks like in the next couple of years there will be a reduction to CFIA. We used to have around 3,200 full-time equivalents. In the projections, it's down to 2,600 to 2,800. There's always talk about having the manpower, having the money, but we can see that it's coming out of CFIA. The answer from Mr. Fred Gorrell was:

That's a good question. For the agency, definitely, how we prioritize and where we put out money is important as well. Money sunsets and comes and goes. We have enough assets right now to do our job, and I think we are able to do it well.

Yet we hear—and Mr. MacGregor spoke about this—discussions about how we recover from all of the money that was lost out of the CFIA. We constantly hear from you and the Liberals about how we recover from all of that, so this is what we are talking about. This is where the numbers are coming from. I'd be happy to speak with the officials as they would be able to give us more detail in the next hour.

The next point that I wanted to make has to do with the carbon tax. My specific question is this: how much reduction of greenhouse gas emissions will the carbon tax result in as far as our agriculture industry is concerned?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Thank you very much, Earl.

CFIA will be available to you—

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Thank you.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

—afterwards for your detailed questions.

Earl, as you know, we canvassed in the last election and indicated quite clearly we were going to put a tax on carbon and grow our GDP at the same time. That's exactly what we're doing. Last year, we had the largest growth in the G7. What you have to make sure you don't do is create a myth that dealing with our environment, making sure we have a place to live, making sure that we're able to grow the agricultural product—

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Minister, at that point in time, the carbon tax wasn't implemented.