Agriculture Committee on Feb. 25th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

No problem. You can table your motion. It will be there and it will be ready to go. Based on the schedule, the committee will decide when to consider it. There's no problem tabling the motion if you wish to.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

All right. These are technical details.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

We will need to decide when.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

This is an issue that we've certainly heard a lot about over the last couple of years of this committee. I think you would get a lot of witnesses coming forward to talk about this, so I would propose an amendment.

Right after the semi-colon, in front of “that the committee”, I would like to insert the words “that no fewer than six meetings be held to hear from witnesses”.

Then after it, you would put “and” because then it would be another....

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Okay, we have an amendment to the motion where after the words “that the committee” we add “holds no fewer than six meetings and reports its recommendations to the House”.

(Amendment negatived)

We go back to the original motion that we do a study on temporary foreign workers.

Mr. Perron, you have the floor.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

On the two previous motions, we said earlier that we would take the time needed. I would hope that the members around the table would take the time needed to study this fundamental issue as well.

Actually, I don't understand why the amendment was defeated. I just wanted to make the comment. It's important, but we can make decisions as we go. It's important to deal with the issues fully.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Mr. Drouin, the floor is yours.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

I'd like to give Mr. Perron a piece of advice.

The last few times we had studies like this, we accepted a lot of motions. The danger is that your motion could be put on hold for several months, because other issues could come before the committee or be in the news and you could propose another motion.

I suggest you do not put it to a vote right now, but it's your choice, obviously. However, we have two studies on the agenda. If there's a crisis, I can assure you that all we're going to do in this committee is respond to that crisis, because we are going to make sure our farmers are heard. It has happened in the past.

We can accept it today, but in the last Parliament, we had motions that were accepted but not even considered by the committee due to time constraints.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Mr. Chair, I would like to ask a technical question. There are a few of us new members around the table and we are learning how this works.

If ever that happens, can I formulate the motion differently and move it again at a later date? If so, would it be better to keep it? Thank you, by the way. It's good that we're explaining things to each other. In any case, I appreciate things being explained to me.

Ideally, I would like to put it through, so I will table it, even if I have to table it again later.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

There are options here.

If Mr. Perron agrees, we can vote to adjourn the debate without voting on the motion. Otherwise, we can vote on the motion and put it on hold.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

If we vote and we put it on hold, can I bring it back later?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Yes, because the committee will have adopted it. We can put it on the agenda.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

All right.

Rest assured, Mr. Drouin, this is the only motion I'm going to ask you to vote on today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

So that's the way you want to do it.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Yes, absolutely. Do you want an explanation, or is that clear enough?

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

Are you withdrawing it?

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

No. I'm just asking if you want me to explain the motion and why it should be supported.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

You can take the time to do it.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

If you're at the table of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food, it's because you're in contact with agricultural producers and agri-food people. So you know that there are huge needs. Some crazy things are going on right now. For example, there is a foreign worker who has been coming here for 17 years in a row and has to go through the whole process all over again. Some producers have to provide market research every year, regardless of the sector.

I'm sure that together we can find solutions by listening to the witnesses. In fact, they will provide us with possible solutions to speed up the process and make life easier for everyone by reducing paperwork. This will lead to greater efficiency, particularly with respect to work sharing. At present, it is extremely difficult, if not virtually impossible, for producers to enter into work-sharing agreements because the time frames are too long.

In case of flooding, for example, you can't work in the fields. Suppose it lasts three weeks. During that time, the workers do nothing, and their employer cannot send them to a neighbour who needs the labour. They have to fill out forms, which take six weeks to process. These three weeks are therefore lost for both the neighbouring producer and the temporary foreign workers.

There are all sorts of similar examples. I'm going to stop here, but it's a major irritant for our farm businesses. So I encourage you to vote for the motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Perron.

Are there any other comments? If not, we will proceed to the vote.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

I just want to ask a question for our information. I'm told that there was a similar study done in 2017, so I'd like to see the recommendations that were made at that time. I'm not the type of person who likes to do studies just for the sake of doing them.

If there are any recommendations from the committee's 2017 study, I would like us to look at them to see what we can do with them. We could bring them back to the table. I'm not sure it would be very effective to do a study and come up with the same recommendations.

It's not because I disagree with Mr. Perron, but it's a really important issue. We should not duplicate the work that has been done. I imagine that in the space of a year and a half or two years, there would not be much difference between the two studies. So I'd like to look at those recommendations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

That's the question I was asking the clerk, who did some checking. It seems that our committee has not done such a study.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Did the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food not make recommendations?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

I am told that the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities may have done a similar study. It is worth consulting it. I agree with you.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

If it turns out that this committee has done such a study, we could look into that first. That could be the first step in our study. It might even speed it up.