Agriculture Committee on March 12th, 2020

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

Mr. Chair, with your permission, I have a list of questions that relate to this. Since they don't have the report in front of them, I'm wondering if I can submit these questions to you and ask that you table the answers so that maybe we could get the answers to those questions. Would that be okay?

[Chris Forbes]

Absolutely.

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

Great, thank you.

We've heard from a lot of cattle producers here in Ontario recently that they have a shortage of processing capacity in Ontario with the closing of the Ryding-Regency plant. That's about 10% of the processing capacity here in Ontario for beef farmers. We add on carbon tax and new transportation regulations in animal transport in the sector here.... I know the cattlemen have come to you with a proposal on something that the government can do to help them go through this crisis.

I'm just wondering if the department has received that proposal and if there is a plan going forward to help them and to implement some of these requests or suggestions that they made to you.

[Chris Forbes]

First of all, it has been, obviously, a really difficult period in Ontario in particular with the lack of processing capacity, so we understand that. We're working pretty closely with the Government of Ontario and the industry in Ontario, and the cattlemen, and more widely the Cattlemen's Association nationally, to look at solutions, both for farmers or producers, and for where we can find processing capacity. It's a difficult situation, obviously, but one that we're certainly working on.

I think, as the minister said in the previous session, we're always open to working with the sector to hear their ideas and see if there are ways that we can work together to deliver on what they need.

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

Perhaps I'll ask you this too. I asked this of the minister. When it comes to our food security and our food supply, now with the coronavirus happening, we don't want to see a panic whereby folks at the grocery stores are wondering how they're going to get groceries in their stores if the distribution centres shut down. Is there a plan in the works in the department or in the government to ensure that we have our food security in place, and perhaps to deem food supply and security as an essential service going forward?

[Chris Forbes]

Certainly I would say that we work basically on a daily basis with colleagues across the government, most notably and maybe to your question with departments such as Transport Canada, to help identify where we might be seeing emerging impacts. We do this anytime there are economic challenges, and this one is obviously emerging and developing day by day in terms of the impacts.

I think one of the things we've learned is that a lot of these things can be quite regional and local in nature, indeed with respect to some of the pressure points. Part of it is having good intelligence across the country in terms of where we're seeing pressure points and trying to figure out sometimes specific local or regional solutions to some of the barriers we're seeing, whether those are around getting supplies from processors to retail shelves or getting them from farms to processors, or whether it's getting input. It will depend a little bit on the situation, but we certainly will keep in pretty close contact with—

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Ms. Rood.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Now we go to Mr. Louis for up to six minutes.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Forbes and Ms. Walker, for your time and your thoroughness.

I've been taking notes the whole time. A lot of things have been covered, but it would be wonderful if we can expand on those. There never seems to be enough time to talk about all the things we want to.

Specifically I want to start by talking about youth and our next generation of farmers. Both at home in Kitchener—Conestoga and on the Hill, these young farmers come to speak to us. It's amazing to hear the ideas they have, their open-mindedness and their concern for the environment and their desire to take over the farms.

I'm wondering if you can tell us about some specific programs that can help our next generation of farmers.

[Chris Forbes]

Certainly. We have a range. I'll try to be quick.

I think the minister raised that through the agricultural partnership, the provinces are delivering a fair bit of programming that's often quite targeted at local and regional needs in a specific province, which I think can sometimes be quite helpful for young farmers.

We have a couple of things to point out. The minister pointed out that she will launch a youth council, I think, as a way to hear specifically about the priorities of young farmers. There is programming, often financially driven through Farm Credit Canada, or our own programming, through the Agricultural Loans Act, which often provides some financial relief to new farmers or those just starting up.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Ms. Walker, would you like to comment?

[Christine Walker, Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Management Branch, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

In addition, the department received funding to invest in young people through internships and also to help them get into the agricultural job market.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

In my notes I talk about intergenerational transfers, as well, which is something that's going to help our next generation. Is this one of the specific programs that you're mentioning?

[Chris Forbes]

That's about the tax and other measures that might be specific to reducing the financial barriers around the intergenerational transfer of farms. That's something the minister referenced that she's working on with the Minister of Finance.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

All right. That helps.

The youth council hasn't been formed yet. That's in its infancy.

[Chris Forbes]

No, that's to come.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

I'm curious to hear more, because even locally, we're hearing people say that they want to start local chapters.

[Chris Forbes]

I'll just say that as the minister pointed out, there were about 825 applicants for that youth council. Obviously the council won't be 825 people, but we'll use those applicants, to the extent they're interested, as a resource for us across the country, and to build a bit of a pool of young farmers, students we can tap into for discussion of issues or if they're interested in aspects of our work.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

That's a good point. Maybe you could consider all the universities and the young students—

[Chris Forbes]

Yes. They have identified their interest, so we should take advantage of that.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Perfect.

There are also many more women in our region as well as across Canada who are farming and getting involved. Are there any unique challenges or programs that would help them grow their businesses as well?

[Chris Forbes]

We certainly are through our programming. We do have a program, agri-diversity, under the agricultural partnership, which is kind of targeted to expand diversity in the agricultural sector more broadly. We work with the provinces and the sector on that. I'd go back to some of the other comments I made. Provincial programming under the agricultural partnership can tackle specific local and provincial needs in that regard.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Is there...? I don't want to shut you out of the conversation.

[Christine Walker]

[Inaudible—Editor]