Agriculture Committee on March 11th, 2021

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

Yes.

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

It would be a further step, but the good news is that this week we've been informed that the scientific community of the OIE, the United Nations organization for animals.... I forget the term in English, sorry.

Colleen, maybe you can complete the name in English.

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

It's the World Organisation for Animal Health.

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

Yes.

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

It has informed us that the committee is recommending that Canada get the negligible risk status. This is the first step. We will continue to get further in the coming weeks.

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

Thank you very much.

Please look at SRM after.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Steinley.

Thank you, Madame Bibeau.

Now we go to Mr. Blois for five minutes.

Go ahead, Mr. Blois.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank our minister. It's great to see you back. I appreciate the work that you do for our agriculture stakeholders across the country.

I'll just go on record as saying to Mr. Steinley's comments that perhaps he can sub in at the environment committee. I know our minister is a strong proponent for the agriculture sector across this country. Some of those questions would be better placed there, so perhaps he can find that opportunity.

Minister, I just want to put two points on the record about temporary foreign workers. We've talked about this, so I won't ask the question. I'll just say that the $1,500 really means a lot to the stakeholders in my riding. I don't know who would have developed it; I suspect it was you who put some caveats in that if the emergency orders continued, that would basically continue to the next year. I want to compliment you on that. A lot of my producers were wondering what happens when we change years. Kudos to you.

Of course, I have the largest supply managed sector east of Quebec. It is extremely important. We were very fortunate to see support for the dairy processors. I understand that 92% of that has already been given out through the Canadian Dairy Commission. Of course, we're working on poultry with the mitigation measures there.

My questions are a little bit different. There's a major local food movement in my area of Kings—Hants, specifically in the Annapolis Valley. Individuals are looking to try to procure more local food and to work with local producers, whether that be schools or hospitals. I know that schools and hospitals are not the role of the federal government. I know that even procurement at the federal level is not in your ministry, but are these conversations that you're hearing, whether in Compton—Stanstead or elsewhere in the country? Does there seem to be a desire to try to support Canadian producers and procure local food? Does that resonate with you at all?

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

It does, a lot.

As the federal minister of agriculture, my responsibility is around international trade, science and innovation, as well as support to farmers. I'm getting really interested in local supply because everybody is talking about that. Because of COVID, people realize how important it is. That is why strengthening our regional food supply chain is becoming a priority for us.

I'm really consulting right now and trying to find what role the federal government can play in strengthening our food security through regional food supply chains.

I don't have the solution yet, but I'm very open to all your suggestions. If you want to work on it, I would actually encourage it. I know you have quite a list of topics to be working on shortly. I don't have a solution yet, but yes, this is something we are interested in.

When we, as a government, look at buying local, it's definitely something we care about. We always have to be careful to make sure we respect our international trade agreements, but yes, we pay attention to that.

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

Absolutely, and again, I wasn't looking for a solution. I wasn't trying to put you on the spot, but I appreciate that you're hearing that. It helps confirm what I'm hearing in my own riding, and I think there is an opportunity to bring together elements of reducing emissions, being mindful of sustainable practices, and trying to improve health outcomes and access to healthy food. It really resembles some of the principles we had in the Canadian food policy.

Madam Minister, we know how important our trading partner the United States is to our agricultural products. You recently had a conversation with your U.S. counterpart, Tom Vilsack.

Can you give us a sense of your conversation and what your two departments' shared priorities are for the days ahead?

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

We had a great conversation. I was the first of his counterparts he contacted. It's always a good sign to see how much Canada and the United States work together.

We both emphasized how important it was to keep the borders open during the pandemic. In general, we understand that our food systems are very integrated. Food will often cross the border a few times before it reaches our table. That was a key aspect of our discussion.

We also discussed fighting climate change. It's good to know that the U.S. is now as committed to fighting climate change as we are, that they are willing to invest in research, innovation and new technologies, and that they also want to set challenges and targets for themselves. Finally, they are also willing to look at ways in which we can help our agricultural producers make the transition.

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

Thank you, Madam Minister.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Blois.

This concludes the first part of our meeting.

I would like to thank Ms. Bibeau for taking the time to meet with us and for staying with us despite the interruption.

Thank you for the updates and information you provided to committee members.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good evening, everyone.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Madam Minister.

We're going to stay with the officials. That leaves us with 26 minutes of questions, and then we have to vote on the estimates.

With that, we'll go to our government officials.

We'll start this round of questions with Mr. Epp.

Mr. Epp, do you have a different headset?

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

No, I don't yet, but I've engaged my staff to find one.

Mr. Perron, I extend my apologies. I will try to speak very clearly for the interpreters and hope that the Bluetooth does its magic.

First of all, thank you to the officials for being with us today.

I'm going to direct some attention to the temporary foreign worker program because that is such an integral part of my area. In my riding and the riding of my neighbour to the west, I believe we are host to the largest influx of temporary foreign workers in Canada.

First of all, I am going to echo Kody Blois's affirmation of the government funding, the $1,500. That is very well received and I support that for the employers.

Can I just have some basic background on the integrity of how the reporting goes to confirm that the $1,500 is used appropriately? I'm supportive of it, but I have been challenged on that from constituents and I want to be able to speak intelligently to that to perhaps some detractors of the program, which I support.

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

Thank you, Mr. Epp.

Yes, as we would normally do with a program, we would have a group of eligible expenses, which we would communicate to applicants. For participating farmers, one of the big ones is the wages paid to workers over the course of the quarantine. We have an application form where they have to verify the expenses, the amounts, obviously the limit being $1,500.

What we would normally do with programs is that while we try to keep the application process light, we obviously do some post-program audit and verification to make sure we're catching any systemic issues.

I hope that answers your question.

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

Yes, thank you.

Our region has an influx of a host of international farm workers. Unfortunately, we have an undocumented workforce as well. Of course, many Canadians also work in our agriculture sectors.

In this morning's Globe and Mail, Justine Hunter reported that the—

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Mr. Epp, the interpreters just notified me that they don't have enough quality sound to be able to interpret. I apologize for that, but if you wish to transfer your time to one of your colleagues, you may do so.

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

I will transfer the remainder of my time to Richard.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Mr. Lehoux, you have the floor.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I will repeat my question. I don't know if Ms. Walker or Mr. Forbes will answer it. Could we have some additional information on where the $10 million came from? From which budget was it transferred? Was it all taken from the same budget? Was it cut from the research budget?

[Chris Forbes]

We didn't cut anything.

I will start, and then Ms. Walker can clarify.

I believe we told the committee about this last summer. Because people are not travelling and we have changed the way we work, we found some funds that will not be spent this year, in the first appropriation for operations in our estimates. We transferred them from Vote 1 to Vote 10.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

If I understand correctly, Mr. Forbes, because of the pandemic, you saved $10 million.

[Chris Forbes]

Yes. That amount was not used.