Agriculture Committee on Dec. 10th, 2020

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

Another really important issue with the United States comes with the issue of spent fowl. Chicken Farmers of Canada estimated, back when I met with them in February, that the amount of fraudulent labelling of poultry entering Canada from the United States can equal around $200 million a year.

Can you give us an update on how our efforts are going to crack down on this problem? We have just renegotiated our agreement with the United States. A certain amount of poultry is allowed to come into Canada, and that will increase. Of course, a lot is slipping through the cracks still, so how are we going to crack down on that?

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

I wouldn't say it increased, because with the controls we have put in place in recent years, it has decreased. As I said, this is a sector that we have asked the Canada Border Services Agency to focus on. We are investing in additional means to control it. You know that we have the food policy for Canada, which also includes a dimension on food fraud. We have also given additional capacity to CFIA to have more control around that.

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

Thank you.

This is my final question. As you know, we are again having a dairy problem with the United States, despite our best efforts to come to an agreement.

Tom Vilsack is going to be the new Secretary of Agriculture under the Biden administration. Of course, he has been leading the U.S. Dairy Export Council. I'm just wondering, Minister, whether you have reached out to Mr. Vilsack to congratulate him on his new role that will start on January 20 and to maybe try to get things off on the right foot, because he, as the leader of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, has been a bit of a thorn in our side, but it would be great to maybe get off on the right foot.

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

I will reach out to him, I think, when he is confirmed.

I am very confident that the way we are proceeding with the TRQs is respecting our agreement with the United States, and we will follow the process. We will go through the consultation, and I'm very confident that we are doing things the right way.

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

I appreciate that, Minister. Thank you so much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. MacGregor.

Thank you, Minister.

We are now beginning the second round of questions and answers.

Mr. Lehoux, go ahead for five minutes.

I understand that you are sharing your time with Mr. Epp.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, I will share my time with Mr. Epp.

Good afternoon, Minister.

It is a pleasure to have you with us. Thank you for joining us this afternoon.

I have a question about compensations for egg and poultry producers. According to our recent discussions with them, they don't really want to receive a cheque. They would much prefer to get investment credits to improve their productivity. I assume there is a very direct link to the Department of Finance.

In addition to the ongoing talks between the department and producers, is the Department of Finance also involved in that issue?

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

You should not be concerned. We have already made a lot of progress with the working group after the CPTPP was signed, and we already have a good idea of what they want—investment programs and marketing support.

We will meet with them next week to update everything, and that will help us develop programs and implement them as quickly as possible.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Minister, it would be very relevant for egg and poultry producers to get some news. This would be good news for them before Christmas. Many negotiations have been held. I assume that establishing a program does not correspond with the sending of cheques, which could be done quickly. That was my point of view on this. It would be really good to end the year in this way with producers.

With everything happening in the United States since yesterday concerning dairy products, knowing that all supply management products are targeted in their thought process, do you commit today to protecting them and ensuring that no other concessions are made in the agreement with our American and Mexican neighbours in terms of poultry and eggs?

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

The agreement has been signed, and there is no reason to make other concessions. It has been signed, and Canadians....

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

The agreement is currently being challenged, after all.

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

I am sure that the way tariff rate quotas have been implemented is in line with the agreement we signed. We will....

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Will you hold your own, Minister?

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

Absolutely.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you.

My colleagues talked earlier about the $77 million in assistance for processors. Will that funding be increased? There are still some major needs, and we don't seem to be at the end of the pandemic.

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

Thank you for asking me, and I'll even give you some exclusive news. We were able to add $10 million to the $77.5 million in emergency assistance for processors.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

If there is a shortfall, you will add more. Thank you in advance.

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

We are following this very closely.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

I will now give the floor to my colleague Mr. Epp.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Good afternoon, Minister. It's good to see you again.

If I understand the compensation package correctly, there will be just under $70 million a year, so $691 million over 10 years. I, too, have met with the egg farmers and the chicken producers, and they are very supportive of the monies flowing into this kind of pot that would drive innovation and efficiency.

If I could just bring some perspective to the numbers, though, these are the sectors that rely on barns. They need to be heated into the season that we're going into now, which we call a Canadian winter. There are just over 5,000 producers. Following along the logic of my colleague Mr. Blois, if you take those numbers of about $70 million a year, and 5,000 producers, you're at about $14,000 per producer per year. I recognize that's probably not how the funds will flow, but this is just to give some perspective.

It's an interesting coincidence that this $14,000 is about the same number that the Canadian Federation of Independent Business calculates is the cost of the carbon tax to the average farm. Chicken, poultry, and egg producers would be higher users than average, again, because they're using barns.

Do you believe that these compensatory funds could be fully offset through innovation, through efficiency and mitigation measures, which you've mentioned, to offset the costs of the carbon tax to these producers?

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

I understood two different questions in your question. The compensation is put in place to compensate for the loss of market. This has been evaluated following the work of the working group and the work of our team here at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. We came to this amount of $691 million over 10 years for the CPTPP. This is one thing.

You probably heard during the presentation of the fall economic statement that we will be investing $98 million in different programs related to supporting farmers to be more efficient and to make their operations greener. So there are other investments, other programs, where the farmers will be able to apply.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Epp.

Ms. Bessette, you have five minutes.

[Lyne Bessette, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much, Ms. Bibeau, and your team at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, for announcing compensation that will allow producers to better plan their operations, especially in these very uncertain times. I am very pleased to know that several producers in Brome-Missisquoi will be able to benefit from it.

After the CETA, our government put in place a program to help dairy producers and processors improve their productivity and competitiveness, and prepare for the market changes that will result from this agreement.

Could you tell the committee how this program was received by the sector and how popular it was?

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

It's the first compensation program we've put in place. It provided $250 million to dairy producers and $100 million to processors to help them invest in order to be more productive, among other things. I had the information somewhere on how many projects we were able to support with this program. I don't have it in my head anymore, but I can say it's pretty significant.

We had discussions with the milk producers afterwards. We learned that they preferred to have direct transfers based on their quotas rather than investment aid. Poultry and egg producers, on the other hand, want investment programs.

We will learn from the investment programs we have offered to the dairy sector. We are in the process of putting in place investment programs for poultry and egg producers.

[Lyne Bessette, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

Perfect, thank you.

As you just said, chicken, poultry and egg producers will receive money in the form of investment aid and market development assistance.

Can you clarify exactly what this means and how this will affect them?