Evidence of meeting #13 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was market.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Benoît Fontaine  Chair of the Board, Chicken Farmers of Canada
Jeff Nielsen  Chair of the Board, Grain Growers of Canada
Erin Gowriluk  Executive Director, Grain Growers of Canada
Dave Carey  Vice-President, Government and Industry Relations, Canadian Canola Growers Association
Michael Laliberté  Executive Director, Chicken Farmers of Canada
Jean-Michel Laurin  President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council
Joël Cormier  Chair of the Board, Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council
Rory McAlpine  Senior Vice-President, Government and Industry Relations, Maple Leaf Foods Inc.
Paulin Bouchard  President and Chief Executive Officer, Fédération des producteurs d’œufs du Québec

3:50 p.m.

Bloc

Yves Perron Bloc Berthier—Maskinongé, QC

Your demands are very clear. I now give the floor to Ms. Desbiens.

3:50 p.m.

Bloc

Caroline Desbiens Bloc Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC

Good afternoon, everyone.

First of all, I would like to emphasize your great resilience and adaptability. You have all shown great ingenuity and intelligence in preserving the market.

Mr. Bouchard, we may be related, since my mother's a Bouchard. Greetings to you.

There's a lot of talk about the Agri-this and Agri-that programs. You said we should think about an emergency farm plan to learn from the past, avoid repeating the same mistakes and protect farmers. I'd like to hear your comments about that.

3:50 p.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Fédération des producteurs d’œufs du Québec

Paulin Bouchard

We often tend to opt for the solution that is not easy for you, the politicians, which is the financial solution. We want to make up for the lack of efficiency by adding to the money. But we have extraordinary tools in Canada that allow us to have greater flexibility, more regulatory predictability, and to reduce the impact on consumers, who end up paying taxes.

We could be more efficient in the way we manage things here and be more strategic, like the Americans, who are often very strategic. They don't give us many gifts. We could develop that and give ourselves that flexibility.

3:55 p.m.

Bloc

Caroline Desbiens Bloc Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC

We agree that more funding would also be an attractive option. Compared to the Americans, we're at a real disadvantage.

3:55 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

Thank you, Ms. Desbiens and Mr. Bouchard.

Mr. MacGregor now has the floor.

Mr. MacGregor, you have six minutes. Please go ahead.

3:55 p.m.

NDP

Alistair MacGregor NDP Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC

Thank you very much, Chair, and thank you to our witnesses for appearing.

I'll start with the Poultry and Egg Processors Council.

I think it's safe to imagine that the workplace has fundamentally changed as a result of COVID-19, especially in a processing plant, with the need for Plexiglas barriers, physical distancing, alternate shifts, personal protective equipment and so on. Those conditions in the workplace will probably be in place for some time. They may be relaxed at some point in the future, but I think any time that a pandemic rears its ugly head in the future, we will have to be ready to implement them yet again.

You represent small and large processors right across Canada. I'm wondering, given the new conditions in the workplace, what your output is going to be like when we get back to normal. You had a business model that worked with employees sometimes working very closely together. You still have the same floor-space, but now they have to work farther apart in different shifts. What's your output going to be like in a year from now? Are you going to be able to come back to the levels you once had a year or so ago?

3:55 p.m.

Chair of the Board, Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council

Joël Cormier

The day that the pandemic is over and there is a vaccine or something like that, we think we can get back to the same level of production that we had. Meanwhile, it's going to be hard. There are places where we needed to reduce production in order to ensure worker safety. In other places, it is the investments we had to make. That's why we made so much investment. As an example, with the design of the lines in our processing plants, that's material we're buying most of time from Europe. That equipment is designed for so many people and so many square feet. We needed to put very many protective measures in place to ensure that we comply with health and safety security in the face of COVID.

There will be a reduction in some of the activities, but it will not be anything major. There will be a reduction. Depending on where you're located, there will be some impact. I will say that a 5% to 10% to 15% reduction in capacity might happen, depending on the plant and the design of the floor.

That's where we're heading.

3:55 p.m.

NDP

Alistair MacGregor NDP Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC

How would you say that your employees are doing at the moment? How is their general mental health? How are they dealing with the added stress and strain of this new reality we're in?

3:55 p.m.

Chair of the Board, Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council

Joël Cormier

That's an excellent question.

As we said, the first thing we want to ensure as an organization is worker safety, and that's all of our members. As Mr. McAlpine mentioned, there will be a lot of sharing of information among all members about the stuff they did to improve.

At the beginning, our employees were anxious. They were nervous and scared. We saw a lot of absenteeism also. With some of the programs that have been created, some of that absenteeism in our plants happened when people thought they could stay home and get paid, so some of them decided to quit. However, then they realized it wasn't the thing to do.

I will say right now that because the screening being done before they get into the plants and all the measures that have been put in place, most of the time people feel that they are safe. When you look at the number of people across Canada in our processing plants on the poultry side, you see that all of our members did very well in ensuring security, and the employees feel it.

3:55 p.m.

NDP

Alistair MacGregor NDP Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC

Great. Thank you very much.

Mr. McAlpine, I'd like to turn to you and Maple Leaf Foods. I'll get a few of your quick comments on that question I addressed to the processors. I would also like to hear a little more about your thoughts on food security in Canada.

You mentioned Maple Leaf Centre for Action on Food Security. This is an area that is very near and dear to my heart. We are an incredibly wealthy nation that produces an abundance of food, but we still have so much food insecurity.

Are there any major findings you can share with this committee from the Maple Leaf centre, or areas of study we should be looking into in the years ahead?

4 p.m.

Senior Vice-President, Government and Industry Relations, Maple Leaf Foods Inc.

Rory McAlpine

On the issue of the processing plant environment, the challenges of operating and the impacts to production, as Joël said, have been very challenging. For us, we have had some particular plant issues. In the case of our poultry business, we had challenges, particularly at our poultry plant in Brampton, Ontario, that resulted in the closure of the plant for a few days. We have been extremely vigilant and have so far kept it out of our big plants in western Canada, which is so critical. Our brand and slaughter plant has had none of the experience that has occurred south of the border, or, frankly, at the beef plants in Alberta.

I guess the biggest concern is absenteeism. I think we can manage with all the new physical issues and the layout changes, but we are experiencing higher absenteeism. That could become a concern, but so far I think it's stabilized. We're achieving a new normal. We're relatively optimistic.

On the issue of food security, absolutely, this has been a devastating impact. I don't think there's yet really credible third party data, but there have been some suggestions that already in the last three months food insecurity in Canada has doubled. The number of individuals who need help to feed the family has doubled, and it was a crisis before.

In our case, our Centre for Action on Food Security has been operating for three years. Just in the crisis, we've added a $500,000 donation. We've now begun a campaign to raise a further $2-million contribution for food insecurity in Canada. That's on top of a $2.5-million donation to front-line health care workers. Yes, it needs work.

4 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

Thank you, Mr. McAlpine. Thank you, Mr. MacGregor. Unfortunately, that's all the time we have for today.

I would like to thank the Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council, represented by Mr. Joël Cormier, chairman of the board of directors, and Mr. Jean-Michel Laurin, president and chief executive officer.

I would also like to thank Mr. Rory McAlpine, senior vice president of Maple Leaf Foods, as well as Mr. Paulin Bouchard, president and CEO, and Mr. Denis Frenette, assistant general manager, both of the Fédération des producteurs d'œufs du Québec.

Thank you all for coming to talk to us about your experiences in our new collective reality.

Now, for our members, our next meeting will be a business meeting next Wednesday. We need that to give the clerk direction as to where we want to go with the new mandate we have to continue until the end of the Parliament and beyond, if we decide that. The next meeting, again, will be about that.

I would encourage everyone to start thinking about their witness lists—

4 p.m.

Conservative

John Barlow Conservative Foothills, AB

Mr. Chair, I have a quick point of order before you go.

Mr. McAlpine mentioned that he had a lengthy brief he was going to submit to the committee. I'm just wondering if it has been distributed. I haven't seen it yet.

Mr. McAlpine, there were some questions we talked about that you were looking for answers for. Would that more in-depth document include some more information on some of the things we spoke about?

4 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

Mr. McAlpine, have you already submitted the brief?

4 p.m.

Senior Vice-President, Government and Industry Relations, Maple Leaf Foods Inc.

Rory McAlpine

Yes, I submitted it yesterday.

4 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

Okay. We'll make sure that every MP gets it. Yes, if there are any further points we want, we could always send the invitation again if you want to extend that conversation.

Is that good, Mr. Barlow?

4 p.m.

Conservative

John Barlow Conservative Foothills, AB

Yes, thank you.

It's just that Mr. McAlpine mentioned a couple of things in his shorter presentation, some questions about the activism in Health Canada and some of those things. I'm hoping his lengthy submission will have his insight on some of those things. If not, maybe we can submit questions that he could answer later on as part of his submission.

4 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

Absolutely.

Okay, thank you all. Have a great, safe weekend.

4 p.m.

Conservative

Richard Lehoux Conservative Beauce, QC

I have a question, Mr. Chair.

4 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

We're listening, Mr. Lehoux.

4 p.m.

Conservative

Richard Lehoux Conservative Beauce, QC

According to my own stopwatch, you seem to have cut me off a little too soon. I had six minutes, but I'm not convinced you gave me that much time. I didn't tell you earlier, but I wanted to let you know anyway.

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

Okay, I actually have someone keeping time, but I'll get you next time.

Did we cut you off too soon?

4:05 p.m.

Conservative

Richard Lehoux Conservative Beauce, QC

I think so. I had more than a minute left.

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

Would you like to take that time now?

4:05 p.m.

Conservative

Richard Lehoux Conservative Beauce, QC

No, that's fine, thank you. My question was directed to Mr. McAlpine, and I believe my colleague's question was similar, since it was also related to the tabling of the brief.