Agriculture Committee on Dec. 10th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

I call the meeting to order.

Welcome to the 12th meeting of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on October 21, 2020, the committee is commencing a briefing on the topic of poultry and egg compensation.

Today's meeting is a hybrid one, pursuant to the order of the House adopted on September 23, 2020. The proceedings will be published on the House of Commons website. For your information, the webcast will always show the individual who is speaking, rather than the entire committee.

To ensure the meeting runs smoothly, I would like to share certain rules with you.

Members and witnesses can speak in the official language of their choice. At the bottom of your screen, you have the choice of floor, English or French.

Before taking the floor, wait until I recognize your name. I remind you that all remarks from members and witnesses must be addressed to the chair. Ensure that your microphone is turned off when you are not talking.

I would like to note that the minister will appear with us for one hour, and then we will proceed to our scheduled committee business.

With that, we are ready to begin.

I believe, Minister, that you have a hard stop at 5:45, so we'll try to respect that.

Minister, I welcome you once again to our committee. We are very proud to have you today.

I give you the floor for your opening remarks.

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It is a pleasure to see you again after only about 10 days.

I am joined today by the associate deputy minister, Annette Gibbons, and Colleen Barnes, from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

I want to begin by thanking the committee for its good work and its dedication to the agricultural sector.

I also thank you for starting the dialogue on our poultry and egg producers, who are all working very hard, as well as on the supply management system.

The government has clearly shown its full support for poultry, egg and dairy producers by announcing the compensation payment of $2.7 billion to offset the impact of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA, and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP.

For dairy producers, that includes the $345 million they already received in direct payments last year, as well as the $250 million in assistance through the dairy farm investment program.

We are now preparing to distribute an additional $1.4 billion over the next three years in direct payments to Canadian dairy producers, based on their quota allocations. So we are talking about $468 million by March 31, 2021, $469 million in 2021-2022 and $468 million in 2022-2023.

For example, an average farm with 80 dairy cows will receive an annual direct payment of about $38,000 over the next three years.

The compensation package we announced also includes $691 million for poultry and egg producers to offset the CPTPP's impact. Together, hatching egg producers, table egg producers, and poultry and turkey producers support more than 140,000 jobs in Canada. We promised to compensate those industries fully and fairly for the losses arising from those agreements, and that is what we are doing.

Two weeks ago, we kept our promise to the 4,800 poultry and egg producers in Canada. On November 28, I joined industry leaders to announce a $691-million investments. That investment will be used to launch various programs that respond to the priorities identified by the poultry and egg working group.

We will focus on business innovation and growth. Program development will come after consultations with industry. We will do everything we can to launch those programs as quickly as possible.

In our discussions with the different poultry and egg sectors, producers told us that programs should focus on investment in capital projects to improve the efficiency of operations, as well as marketing support. Mr. Chair, this announcement was welcomed by the poultry and egg sectors.

We know there's still work to do. Our government remains committed to engaging the sectors on full and fair compensation for the new NAFTA. We also remain committed to supporting our processors of dairy, poultry and egg products for their market impacts. We have already invested $100 million to help Canadian dairy processors invest in new technologies to stay on the cutting edge. Today, 92 dairy producers across Canada have been approved for projects on new automated production and packaging equipment, new products and specialized training.

Dairy, poultry and other processors are also benefiting from the $77.5-million emergency processing fund to implement changes to safeguard the health and safety of workers and their families, and improve, automate and modernize facilities needed to increase Canada's food supply capacity.

As well, for producer-members of dairy, poultry and other co-operatives, in the fall economic statement we extended the tax-deferred co-operative share program for an additional five years. This measure allows farmer-members to defer taxes owed on the patronage dividends that they receive from the co-operative in the form of shares. This benefits both producers and co-operatives, which are such a vital part of our agricultural landscape in rural Canada.

Mr. Chair, our support for our dairy, poultry and egg producers is part of our overall ambition for a strong and prosperous agriculture industry. We know that strong farm businesses mean a strong economy, and that's why we're very focused on strong business risk management programs. Two weeks ago, ministers from across the country met to discuss a number of key priorities for the sector, including meaningful reforms to the BRM programs. Building on all the emergency supports we have rolled out this year to support farmers, our government stands ready to step up with improvements to the BRM programs.

We're aiming for a 50% increase to the amount paid out to farmers through the AgriStability program. As a starting point, our government is looking to remove the reference margin limit, and we are prepared to look at further immediate enhancements to AgriStability that would apply retroactively to the 2020 year and ongoing. As well, I am hoping to find consensus on an increase of the AgriStability compensation rate from 70% to 80%. Taken together, these changes would increase the overall amount AgriStability pays out to farmers by 50%. While we have not yet found a national consensus on these changes, I hope we can find a path forward soon.

At the meeting of federal, provincial and territorial ministers, we also discussed the fees charged by some retailers and their repercussions on processors and consumers.

We created a working group that engages in discussions with industry to find solutions that benefit all supply chain stakeholders. We asked them to suggest concrete measures by our meeting in July.

I thank the committee for focusing on poultry and egg producers. Now more than ever, Canadians are choosing high-quality chicken, turkey and eggs produced on Canadian farms. I know industry has ambitious plans for the future, and it has our government's full support.

I look forward to your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Minister.

To start our first round, we have Ms. Lianne Rood for six minutes, please.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'll be splitting my time with Mr. Steinley today.

Thank you very much, Minister, for being here today. I really appreciate your appearing before the committee to discuss what we have at hand with eggs and poultry.

You touched on the fact that what you've announced so far is compensating for hatching turkey, chicken and eggs. I'm wondering if you have plans or when we can expect an announcement for the processors, who were also promised compensation under these trade negotiations?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Yes, we have proceeded with clear announcements for the dairy, poultry and egg producers. Our commitment is still strong with the processors. We just need a bit more time to complete the evaluation and move forward, but the commitment for full and fair compensation is still very strong.

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

Thank you.

I'm just going to ask a little about what you've already announced so far for poultry and egg compensation. It's my understanding from some of the stakeholders that they're concerned about the timeline on this. When do you expect to begin receiving applications to the program?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

We want to consult the committee, the industry, before we roll out the program. There are meetings already planned for next week, so we intend to put it in place as soon as we can.

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

When would you expect to be disbursing funds from the program?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

I made this mistake once, so I don't want to give you a precise date, but we are already starting the discussions next week, so the intention is to have the program rolling out as quickly as possible.

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

Minister, would marketing and market development qualify under this program? What about improvements to operational facilities?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

We started a discussion with the working group a little while ago, after the signing of the CPTPP. They told us they are interested in investment programs and support to market development in the last discussion we had with them. This is why we want to meet with them again to see if it is still their priority.

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

Thank you.

I have one final question, Minister. You announced a program to compensate for the CETA and CPTPP trade agreements, but you have not announced any compensation for the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement. What's your timeline for announcing CUSMA compensation?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

You will remember that in August 2019 I announced $1.75 billion for dairy farmers over eight years, understanding and acknowledging that producers needed predictability. This is why we have decided to shorten the payment time for compensation to the dairy farmers for CETA and CPTPP over only four years instead of eight, so we are responding to their requests for predictability and—

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

Thank you, Minister. I understand, but we're short on time here, so I'll pass my time over to Mr. Steinley.

[Warren Steinley, Conservative, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Thank you, Minister.

I wouldn't want you to make another mistake, so I'm just going to ask some direct questions.

Are mechanisms in place to protect market share for Canadian producers if trade agreements are not faithfully executed and Canadian producers fail to make inroads in the European and Asia-Pacific markets?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

I'm sorry. I don't get the sense of your question.

[Warren Steinley, Conservative, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

We're now subsidizing some of our producers because they've lost some of their market share, but they're supposed to gain some of the market share in the countries we've made some deals with. If there is not that gain of access in some new markets, are there mechanisms in place to ensure our partners are treating our producers faithfully?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

We are compensating our producers under supply management. The signature—

[Warren Steinley, Conservative, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Let me try again. How much domestic market share have poultry and egg producers lost to European exports since the passage of CETA?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Nothing. From CETA for poultry and egg?

[Warren Steinley, Conservative, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Yes.

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

It was not part of the agreement. For CPTPP, the—

[Warren Steinley, Conservative, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Sorry, CPTPP, yes.

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

It hasn't started to come across the border yet.

[Warren Steinley, Conservative, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Not yet?