Agriculture Committee on May 5th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Welcome, everyone.

It's a pleasure to participate in our first virtual meeting. I think the last time we met, we didn't expect to see each other this way. I'm glad to see you all, even if it's remotely.

I call this meeting to order. Welcome to meeting number seven of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food. Pursuant to the orders of reference of April 11 and April 29, 2020, the committee is meeting for the sole purpose of receiving evidence concerning matters related to the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The order of reference of April 11 also stipulates that only motions requesting or scheduling specific witnesses can be considered by the committee and that such motions shall be decided by way of a recorded vote. As you know, today's meeting is taking place by video conference and the proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website. So that you are aware, the webcast will always show the person speaking rather than the entirety of the committee. In order to facilitate the work of our interpreters and ensure an orderly meeting, I will outline a few rules to follow.

First, interpretation in this video will work very much as in a regular committee meeting. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of either floor, English or French. When you intervene, please make sure that your language channel is set to the language you intend to speak, not the floor. This ensures the best sound quality possible for our interpreters, which is very important.

Also, before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. When you are ready to speak, you can either click on the microphone icon to activate your mike or you can hold down the space bar on your laptop or computer while you are speaking. When you release the bar, your mike will mute itself, just like a walkie-talkie, or for truckers, a CB radio.

I would also like to remind you that all members and witnesses should direct their comments to the chair. Members who need to ask for the floor when it's not their turn to ask questions should activate their microphones and declare a point of order. If a member wishes to speak in response to a point of order raised by another member, he or she must use the "raise your hand" function. By doing so, they will signal to the chair that they wish to speak. To do so, please click on "participant" at the bottom of the screen. When the list appears, you will see next to your name that you can click on "raise your hand".

Speak slowly and clearly, and make sure your microphone is off when you are not speaking. As you know, we strongly encourage you to use a headset. If your headset has a microphone that hangs down, make sure it doesn't rub against your shirt during your speaking time.

In the event of technical difficulties, if you have difficulty hearing the interpretation or have been disconnected by accident, inform the chair or the clerk immediately and the technical team will try to resolve the problem. Please note that we may have to suspend work during that time to ensure that all members can participate fully.

Can all participants click on the top right side of their screen to ensure that they have an overview? This way you should be able to see all participants in a grid. This way, all participants will be able to see each other.

I don't know if everyone's had a chance to do it, but we should be able to see everyone. We should see one person in every little square. It should stay that way, so we know everyone is there.

Finally, just as we usually would in a regular meeting, we will suspend in between panels or sections of the agenda. There are a great deal of resources involved in the holding of virtual meetings so because of that the start and end times are currently set by the whip of all recognized parties, in consultation with the House of Commons administration. I will therefore ensure that the committee meets and finishes on time especially when there are other committee meetings following our own.

With that, we are ready to begin. I would like now to welcome our witnesses for this meeting.

For today's meeting we have from the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Mr. Chris Forbes, deputy minister. Welcome to our committee, Mr. Forbes.

Also from the Department of Agriculture we have Frédéric Seppey, assistant deputy minister, market and industry services branch. Welcome, Mr. Seppey.

From the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, we have Colleen Barnes, vice-president, policy and programs. Welcome, Ms. Barnes.

I would remind members that the complete sitting will be in public. There's no mechanism to sit in camera yet in virtual meetings. Even though we might cover some business at the end, everything will be in public.

Let's go to our witnesses. We'll start with Mr. Forbes for 10 minutes.

[Chris Forbes, Deputy Minister, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I will probably start in French then switch to English, then return to French.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Okay.

[Chris Forbes]

I'd like to thank you all for your invitation. It is a pleasure to join you virtually. I was also present, along with the minister, at the committee's last meeting on March 12.

We are here today to talk to you about the Government of Canada's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This has implications for our agri-food system, of course.

The pandemic has profoundly affected the sector and the entire food supply chain, from farm to grocery store. While our supply chain continues to function and adapt, the consequences are major.

Of course, there are positive aspects, such as the fact that the transport system works very well, which allows us to deliver our agricultural products on time, and the fact that the borders have remained open. This has helped us a lot in terms of exports and imports.

However, the almost complete closure of the hotel and restaurant sectors has had a considerable impact on the entire supply chain. Many farms now have a surplus of products that are not easy to get to consumers.

Moreover, COVID-19 is still causing labour shortages throughout the agri-food system, both on the producer and processor side and for organizations that provide food to the most vulnerable people.

Meat processing plants have been a prime example of this in recent weeks. Many have had to shut down temporarily or slow down their production.

[Neil Ellis, Liberal, Bay of Quinte, ON]

Excuse me, Chair. My translation is mumbled together.

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

Mr. Chair, I'm only hearing the original and not the translation. It's mumbled together.

The translation volume needs to be higher than the original speaker.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Mr. Forbes, whenever you speak French, you have to click on the French, and when you speak English, you have to click on the English.

[Chris Forbes]

These delays are severely impacting the cattle and hog sectors, increasing costs for producers as they need to keep their animals longer on farms, while prices are changing rapidly.

One important step we have taken so far was providing federal guidance to recognize the food supply chain as an essential service, to reinforce that vital work from production and processing through to distribution and sales of food must continue across the country.

We have also lifted travel restrictions on incoming temporary foreign workers and offered $50 million in funding to help employers cover the costs of quarantine for those workers. Over 11,200 workers have arrived since the travel ban was lifted, compared to about 13,000 at this time last year.

At the same time, efforts are under way to reach out to all Canadians who have lost their jobs due to COVID-19, to consider the many opportunities to work in the agriculture and agri-food industry. My department has launched a jobs portal, we have a social media campaign urging Canadians to consider job opportunities in the food industry, and we are complementing the efforts by provincial governments to match unemployed residents with food sector jobs. To support our workers on the front lines, the government has also worked with the provinces and territories to offer a top-up to the wages of low-income essential workers.

On the side of financial tools and support to help farmers and food businesses navigate the stresses resulting from COVID-19, a range of financial measures have been put in place. Perhaps first and foremost was the $5 billion in new lending capacity to Farm Credit Canada, FCC, to help farmers and businesses keep their businesses strong during the pandemic and to help with cash flow. To date, over $3 billion worth of loans has been deferred with FCC.

The government also extended the payment deadline for the advance payments program for those who had a repayment deadline before the end of April. As well, we've extended the AgriStability program enrolment deadline to July 3 to encourage more farmers, producers and ranchers to manage the impact of current market disruptions, increased expenses and production challenges.

There are broader measures available to businesses, such as access to interest-free loans of up to $40,000, with $10,000 of that amount forgivable, and items such as deferral of income tax payments, as well as GST, HST and customs duties.

Specific to the agriculture and food sector, the government has also announced $20 million to help the Canadian Food Inspection Agency hire, train and equip additional staff, which has meant more capacity to accommodate overtime and extra shifts. This funding is also supporting the sharing of inspection resources between provincially and federally inspected processing facilities, which is the case currently in Alberta.

Another area of significant activity has been in terms of food banks and community supports. Across the country, food banks and community food organizations have been forced to change the way they work. They've had to find new volunteers, certainly minimize interpersonal contact and offer more home deliveries, all this while serving a growing number of Canadians. As part of the response, the government has directed $100 million to support food banks and other organizations on the front lines. The funds that have been distributed can be used to purchase, support and distribute food, hire temporary help to fill volunteer shortages and implement biosecurity measures, such as purchase of personal protective equipment.

As we've gone through this process, we have tried to keep in very close contact with industry representatives to make sure we understand developments as they happen. We've engaged with industry representatives through daily calls, five times a week, led by my colleague, Mr. Seppey, which have included about 500 participants, usually from the sector. This has allowed us to be aware of developments in real time, but also to communicate a range of government activities directly to the sector.

We're also working with the provinces and territories, obviously quite closely, meeting our colleagues there to make sure we're aligning programming and understanding their pressures. We've had specific working groups with the meat and poultry industries to understand and address some of their challenges.

I'll finish with some comments or a summary of today's announcements around the agriculture and food sector.

I think the chair and members are all aware the Prime Minister announced a number of measures this morning that totalled about $250 million in financial support for producers and processors, first of all, most notably, some additional support for programs under the business risk management, BRM, suite and some for businesses as well.

On the programming side, the BRM side, the government has launched an initiative of up to $125 million nationally under the AgriRecovery program, which is joint with the provinces, with the first steps being programs focused on cattle and pork producers to help them with costs such as feeding animals longer on site and in the case of hogs, if it comes to that, the unfortunate case of having to do humane depopulation.

In the AgriRecovery program we are committing to have the program cover 90% of eligible expenses, which is up from the normal 70%. It's normally a 60:40 cost share with the provinces. We will put up our 60%, and if the provinces have funds to add their 40% they can, but if not, we would still proceed.

We're also working with the provinces and territories to see if we can get the absence or the shortage of workers to become an eligible risk under the AgriInsurance program, which would be helpful for those worried about crops not being harvested in the fall due to a shortage of workers. These are on top of the existing risk management programs, obviously, which pay out about $1.6 billion annually to producers.

Today there was an announcement around a program for our food processors, providing a total of $77.5 million to help them adapt to new circumstances related to managing COVID-19, and also to ensure continued food production and potentially increase food production in Canada.

I have two final points related to surplus food, which I mentioned at the beginning of my remarks. There is a new program of $50 million to help purchase some of the surplus food that exists in Canada to help direct that to those most vulnerable Canadians who need it. There is a proposal to work with Parliament to increase the borrowing limit of the Canadian Dairy Commission, which would allow it to better manage current milk supply imbalances by storing additional amounts of butter and cheese for dairy producers.

Mr. Chair, that's my summary of what has happened so far in the government response. Along with my colleagues, I am certainly happy to take any questions from the members.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Minister.

Now we'll turn to Ms. Colleen Barnes from CFIA.

Go ahead, Ms. Barnes, for up to 10 minutes if you can.

[Colleen Barnes, Vice-President, Policy and Programs, Canadian Food Inspection Agency]

Thank you very much.

I'll start in English and finish in French.

Mr. Chair, thank you very much for this opportunity to participate in this virtual meeting of the standing committee. I appreciate the chance to share my perspectives as part of the committee’s study of the government’s response to COVID-19.

During this difficult time, CFIA is taking action to preserve the integrity of Canada's food safety system while safeguarding its animal and plant resource base. In doing so, CFIA is committed to protecting the health and safety of its employees, while maintaining these critical inspection services. Every day we work to understand the concerns of industry and consumers with respect to COVID-19 and the unprecedented impact around the globe on businesses, economies and people.

To address these extraordinary challenges that Canadian consumers and industry are facing, CFIA is prioritizing critically important activities and services during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic situation by introducing a temporary suspension of low-risk activities that do not immediately impact the safety of food or the protection of our agricultural resources. The agency will maintain appropriate oversight of domestic and imported food products to meet that objective while also supporting trade and the supply chain, including through the certification of exports.

During this COVID-19 pandemic, we are prioritizing the following activities: food safety investigations and recalls; animal disease investigations, if warranted; regulated inspection services, for example, what we do in meat slaughter establishments; export certification; import services; emergency management, if required, and laboratory diagnostics that support those activities.

CFIA will continue to examine its requirements to determine where further flexibility can be helpful. For example, the agency is temporarily suspending certain non-food safety labelling requirements for food service products so that they can be quickly repurposed for retail to consumers. This temporary measure will aim to ease potential food shortages in the Canadian retail sector, prevent food waste and support Canada’s economy without compromising food safety. Also, in the event of meat shortages, we are working with the provinces and territories to enable the interprovincial trade of meat produced in provincially regulated establishments.

Notwithstanding this flexibility, industry remains responsible for the safety and the quality of the food that it produces, imports and exports. Despite the current pandemic situation, the CFIA will continue to exercise its enforcement discretion as appropriate.

This evolving situation highlights the importance of continued collaboration and communication between the CFIA, industry, and its other stakeholders and partners. To assist in these efforts, as Deputy Minister Forbes has mentioned, the CFIA was very pleased to hear the Government of Canada’s announcement of $20 million for the agency to help it to continue its important work.

With this additional funding, the CFIA will be reassigning staff to areas of high priority and providing them with necessary training and tools; increasing the number of inspectors by hiring new staff or temporarily bringing back those CFIA employees who have recently retired; hiring more veterinarians to provide inspection in industries like meat slaughter; funding more overtime hours to help support longer production hours of industry; equipping inspectors with digital tools and tablets and access to the CFIA’s remote service delivery network; developing agreements, as Deputy Minister Forbes mentioned, with the provinces to train and equip some provincial inspectors so they can provide assistance to the CFIA on a temporary basis as needed; and continuing work with international trading partners to support exports, Canada’s jobs and economy.

These efforts will help uphold the Government of Canada’s commitment to safe food for Canadians and support the sector at the same time.

We are working closely with the industry to keep establishments operating. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, or CFIA, has developed guidance for establishments.

All facilities should follow appropriate public health protocols and seek guidance from local public health authorities.

The CFIA takes this evolving situation very seriously and has advised all employees that they have a duty to follow the guidance of health authorities to protect public health. We have also asked employees to follow the health and safety protocols put in place by the facilities in which they work.

CFIA is working closely with establishments to determine what capacity is required to ensure food safety and prevent pressures on the meat supply. To date, we continue to maintain the appropriate number of inspectors in meat processing establishments. We have a plan in place to address potential inspector absenteeism and an escalation process is in place with industry should issues arise.

To conclude, I would like to reiterate the important role that CFIA inspectors have in keeping Canada’s food supply safe. We will continue to work diligently to ensure the safety of the food made available to Canadians.

Mr. Chair, I am happy to address any questions posed by members of the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Ms. Barnes, and with that we'll start our question round. I want to say hi to Mr. Barlow who has joined us. Hope you're doing well, Mr. Barlow. Good to see you.

The question period is going to be the same as when we meet in person. The first round of questions will last six minutes.

I'd like to ask you not to interrupt the person speaking, because that will cause the screen to jump from box to box. So, you have to wait. I would also ask the witnesses to limit the length of their response to the length of the question, so that there is a certain balance.

Mr. Lehoux, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good afternoon, everyone.

It's good to see you all again via this video conference.

My first question is for Deputy Minister Forbes. Several plants have had to close their doors because of numerous cases of COVID-19. Some of them reopened a few days or weeks later. The Cargill plant in Alberta reopened yesterday, May 4, with a reduced workforce. So what is the federal government going to do about it?

You announced a cattle buyback program today, but this is a plant that processes more than 40% of Canada's cattle production and has reopened with half of its staff.

What steps will the department take to support producers who are having to keep their animals on the farm longer?

[Chris Forbes]

Today, we announced a program to address precisely this challenge. In English it is called a set-aside program. I'm sorry, I don't know the French term. We have set aside $50 million to work with the provinces.

This amount will be used to cover the additional costs arising from the need for producers to keep their animals on the farm longer. That sounds like a demand from industry stakeholders for the type of programs that were in place 15 or 20 years ago.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Deputy Minister, in the same vein, there is a very important element in the program announced today to support processing plants.

Let's take the case of Olymel, in Quebec, which is a major pork processor. Indeed, there are elements of the program to support businesses. They had to take sanitary measures and acquire additional equipment—masks, visors, clothing and so on. But there are no concrete measures to reimburse processors, let alone producers, for these costs.

In Quebec at present, more than 100,000 hogs are being kept in facilities. What are the solutions? I don't think that the measure announced today will cover all these costs, on the contrary.

[Chris Forbes]

The purpose of the program is to help processors purchase new equipment to operate in this new COVID-19 pandemic world, to protect their employees and to continue their processing activities. I am talking about $77 million or $78 million.

There have been two announcements about the AgriRecovery program: one for cattle producers and one for hog producers. These announcements are intended to cover the extra costs they incur as a result of not being able to process their animals and being forced to keep them on the farm longer.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

I understand, Deputy Minister, but currently, on some farms, pigs are about to be euthanized because they have gained a lot of weight in recent weeks. The program does not provide for any measures regarding the costs that producers will have to incur to euthanize these mature animals ready for slaughter. This will be a very significant cost.

Will these costs be reflected in today's announcement? There are few details on that.

[Chris Forbes]

I'm sorry, perhaps I expressed myself poorly.

The AgriRecovery program is designed to address extraordinary costs arising from these types of situations. We are working with the provinces to clearly define eligible costs. We need to take into account the additional costs of keeping animals longer or those related to euthanasia. I know that producers want to avoid euthanasia. These costs would also be eligible under this program.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Forbes and Mr. Lehoux.

I now yield the floor to Mr. Drouin for six minutes.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to greet all my colleagues who are here today.

I would also like to thank the representatives from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for being with us today.

I have a few questions along the same lines as Mr. Lehoux's. He's asked some excellent questions.

Mr. Forbes, if I understood you correctly, you said you're negotiating with the provinces to establish the terms and conditions of the AgriRecovery program and the costs it will cover. Is that correct?

[Chris Forbes]

Yes, exactly, Mr. Drouin.

A province needs to start the process. We are going to work with the provinces to ensure that they have a program. Our goal is that there be a provincial program across the country. We are going to define the eligible costs with the provinces. As I said, a maximum of 90% of eligible costs will be reimbursed; 60% of that will come from the federal government and 40% from the provincial governments.

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

Cattle and hog producers could come forward and tell us that they have used the AgriRecovery program successfully in the past years, but it has not worked as well this time around. If I understand you correctly, the purpose of this program is to provide flexibility. So it may not work exactly as it has in past years. We recognize that this is an extraordinary situation that we have to deal with. But your comments suggest that there will be much more flexibility.

[Chris Forbes]

Normally, we have to work with the provinces to ensure that there is a crisis or an extraordinary event before we start the process. We have already done that work with the provinces with respect to the current situation created by COVID-19. We have already completed the initial stages of launching the program. We are often asked how long it will take. It is very bureaucratic, if I may say so, but we are trying to get this program up and running more quickly this time.

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

I'd like to talk about the processors. I've had several conversations with a local cheese factory, Fromagerie St.-Albert. I know it's the same story across Canada. This cheese plant has finally accepted a premium linked to COVID-19 and it has to modify its entire processing chain. One of the consequences of the physical distance is that production, instead of increasing every day, is decreasing. The cheese factory cannot produce as much as it used to.

I know you've had several conversations with processors across the country. Do you have a fairly representative picture of what is happening in Canada?

Are those who take these physical distancing measures, as in cases like Olymel and Cargill, seeing their output decrease from what it was before?

[Chris Forbes]

I think that is likely. Several companies tell us that this will pose challenges for them. They will have to figure out how to organize themselves to be as effective as possible in the new reality. The fact remains that distance is causing problems with their processes. Yes, it will be a challenge for many of them and that is why we announced this funding today.

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

I guess you'll have to work out the terms of the program.

When can the community expect to be able to apply?