Agriculture Committee on May 28th, 2018

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

—we have to grow our GDP and reduce our emissions and that's exactly what we indicated we'd do and that's what we are doing.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Minister and merci, Mr. Breton.

[Pierre Breton, Liberal, Shefford, QC]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Now we have Mr. Barlow.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and my thanks to the minister for being here.

Before I ask my first question, I wanted to correct the record a little bit on some of the comments you've made so far. You talked about the investments you've had in CFIA, especially in the food safety program. Maybe you're not aware, but you're actually reducing the funding to the food safety program by close to $100 million and you're reducing the staff by close to 700 employees in the food safety program at CFIA. That's one.

You talked about front-of-pack labelling and you wanted to make sure the labels weren't criticizing the ingredients in those products. That's exactly what the front-of-pack labelling does. You're criticizing Canadian wholesome products like milk, meat, and yogourt. Those are some of the concerns we have with those projects.

My first question is about Bill C-49, and I appreciate your taking a lot of credit for the work that was done on Bill C-49, but you also talked about being a farmer in P.E.I. and the importance of that bill. You also know that Atlantic Canada is exempt from some of the elements of that bill, including long-haul interswitching, which ensures that farmers in Atlantic Canada are still captive to one shipper. Also, farmers are asking for own-motion powers for the Canadian Transportation Agency, which is not in there.

I quote Jeff Nielsen, president of Grain Growers, who said, “Everything would have been nice. All the amendments the Senate came back with would have made the bill that much better.”

Minister, why weren't you fighting for those very critical amendments that our farmers wanted? Why weren't you fighting for some additional accountability in Bill C-49 to ensure that in the event of another grain backlog there would be elements in place for the Canadian Transportation Agency to take action against the rail lines without having to go through the minister?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

John, I appreciate most of what you had to say. Of course, you were well aware that we did increase funding to CFIA. I indicated quite clearly—

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

That's not what the documents from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada say.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

I have the floor at the moment, John. The point is, you are fully aware of what we have done and how important it is for CFIA to—

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

I can show you the document right here if you're not familiar....

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

It's also important, John, when you're putting a bill together, that you put the proper transportation system in place for the country. I think you're fully aware of what took place with Bill C-49 and all the investments that have been made.

You know the difficulties that we had over the years, when your government was in power and grain was not moving in the west. When we got elected—

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

We reacted in a much quicker fashion.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

We indicated that we were going to—

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

We put Bill C-30 through immediately and own-motion powers.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

I was very polite when you were speaking, even though I mightn't have agreed with all you had to say.

What I had to do as Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food was to make sure the issues for the nation were addressed. When you look at what took place and all the amendments and all the issues that were involved in Bill C-49 and all we did to make sure that everything was addressed and the grain moved, I'm sure you fully agree that reciprocal penalties are vitally important. I never dreamed the likes of that would happen when I wasn't Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. It's so important to the farmer, not that it's unfair to the railways, but it's just fair both ways.

Making sure that soybean was under the maximum revenue entitlement, I'm sure you agree with that, even though you might have voted against it and that was vitally important.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Minister, you sort of answered my question.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Also, we had to make sure the long-haul interswitching was put in place—

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Minister, you're just trying to run out the time.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

—in order to make sure that we had a proper—

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

You're not answering the questions I gave you.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

—transportation system, John.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

I would like to move on to the next question, please.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

That's what you have to have in order to make sure that you move the product.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

If you can't answer the question, I'm going to move on to the next question, if that's okay.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

You know what took place before Bill C-49 came into play.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

I know exactly that.