Agriculture Committee on May 5th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Barlow.

To your first point, again, it is up to the party to present whoever they want to see as witnesses.

On your second point, from my understanding, we are here at the will of the House—the whips of each party agreed—and right now we don't have a mandate to, say, do six meetings. It can be done if we can all go back to our whips and agree as parties that we want you guys to come up with a report after six meetings or whatever it is. That's how I understand it. I can certainly double-check it, but that's how I understand it.

Mr. Girard, is that about right?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Marc-Olivier Girard]

Yes, Mr. Chair, you're right.

The committee received an order of reference from the House of Commons to sit for the sole purpose of hearing evidence regarding the current pandemic at this time. This won't prevent the committee from potentially collecting all this evidence. When the House and its committees start meeting again in a more traditional manner, I don't believe that anything will prevent the committee from taking into account the evidence collected virtually during this time of crisis in order to make recommendations to the government and to the House.

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

Mr. Chair—

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Just to pursue that, again, we have been mandated by the House to do this study. Right now we don't have the mandate. We can't vote on anything else because of the structure, the mechanism, that we have now.

Again, unless we get different directions from the House, right now we'll just keep doing our study, and we can decide within that framework how it's going to go. We could very well say we're going to do it by theme or we're going to do meats or grains. That could be another option, to look at all sectors. Basically, that's the direction we've been given. I can double-check it, but that's how I understand it.

I think, Mr. Blois, that you had your hand raised.

[Kody Blois, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I certainly appreciate it.

I have just a couple of housekeeping notes, more than anything.

First, as far as timing is concerned, you mentioned Tuesdays and Fridays. I think the schedule is being determined by the whip's office, but do you know when we would regularly meet per week?

Second, around themes, I think you're spot on. We need to have some direction if we want to analyze the measures we've announced as a government today and take a look at their benefits and what it means to the industry.

To the point on the other different committees, I listened in on INDU last night and it sounded a lot like what I would assume this committee would sound like. It was very agriculturally focused. If it's the will of this committee to continue to bring those same witnesses, so be it, but to Mr. Drouin's point, I do think there's an opportunity to hear from some different folks who perhaps all parties have not had the chance to bring forward through this committee.

There's a lot of duplication going on right now. We have to ask ourselves as a committee what our role is, especially recognizing that I believe it's only until May 25 that we're scheduled or permitted to meet at this point.

My concern is times and themes. Can we confirm that we only really have a mandate until May 25?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Mr. Blois, I do believe that's the date right now. I don't have that in front of me.

Mr. Girard, can you check whether May 25 is the set date?

[The Clerk]

Good question. I believe that May 25 is the applicable date. While you're continuing your discussion, I can check this date on my end and then get back to you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Okay, thank you.

We'll go to Mr. MacGregor, but did anybody else have their hand up that I didn't spot?

Mr. Perron, would you like to speak?

Okay.

Go ahead, Mr. MacGregor.

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

Chair, I know that the Minister of Agriculture has appeared before other committees. However, with today's announcement, we have significant new material to discuss. Mr. Forbes did a good job answering questions, but he can't really go beyond the technical nature of the announcement. He's tasked with carrying it out.

Has an invitation been sent to the minister? Do we have any indication as to when she might be available to appear before our committee?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

I'm quite sure she has been invited. As to when she will come in, I'm not sure. I didn't see the list of five witnesses that everybody provided and whether she was on that list or not. Anyway, I'm sure she has been asked already and we'll make sure to have time for her if it's the will of the committee.

Go ahead, Mr. Perron.

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

I want to address the issue that Mr. Barlow raised earlier. He agreed with me on the first part and I agree with him on the second part. Even though this isn't clearly set out in our mandate, I gather—and I must remind you at this point that I'm a new parliamentarian—that the committee operates and makes decisions in a fairly sovereign manner. We could easily decide to make recommendations and send them out. I'm even prepared to make a proposal that will be put to a vote, if that's possible.

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

I'll raise a point of order right now regarding this matter.

I understand what Mr. Perron means, but this isn't possible. We're at the mercy of the House and we can't do anything about it. We've dealt with this situation in every other committee sitting at this time. Remember that the House isn't sitting officially and this status is currently a special status. If Mr. Perron wants to look at the motion carried by the House on April 11 and the amendment made a few days ago for the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food, I invite him to do so. However, we can't move a motion simply because we want to. The committee isn't sovereign and we're really at the mercy of the House in this case.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

I also understood this, Mr. Drouin. We can check this. However, according to the motion, we must follow the guidelines. The situation is a little different from when we meet in a non-virtual setting.

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

That's why I specified that I was a new parliamentarian.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

This is a new experience for everyone today.

I want to specify one thing.

If we want the minister to come in, we would have to send an invitation to the minister to officially bring her in.

Is it the will of the committee to send an invitation to the minister to appear?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

We're all good on that. We will send an invitation to the minister, and as soon as we know when, we'll certainly circulate it to all the members.

Just to be clear, we wanted to have a list for the clerk to invite people. That's why we said to send us your top five right now, and then for Thursday we want everyone to dig deeper and send another list. You can send as many as you want, but we'd like to have another more comprehensive list for Thursday just to make sure that everybody's got that.

Are there any other questions or comments?

Mr. Barlow, go ahead.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

[Inaudible—Editor]

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

I can't hear you very well, Mr. Barlow.

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

Mr. Chair, I had my hand up and I think Mr. Lehoux has his hand raised, too.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Okay. I never saw it.

Who wants to go first? Go ahead, Lianne, and then we'll get John and Mr. Lehoux.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I just wanted to say, to Mr. Blois' point, I did sit on the industry committee last night for the meeting with our stakeholders. I think it's important that we see them in the agriculture committee, especially in the context of just having heard this announcement of new money and funding for the agriculture industry. I think it's important that we hear from the stakeholders now on how this is going to help them or not. It's important that we see them at this committee to study that in particular.

That's all I'd like to say. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Okay, thank you. It is certainly the option of every party to submit its choice of witnesses.

Let's go to Mr. Barlow.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Mr. Chair, I just noticed that Lianne and Richard had their hands raised, so I was just bringing your attention to that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Oh, okay.

Do you have a question, Mr. Lehoux?