Agriculture Committee on March 11th, 2021

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Okay, thank you.

My next question is for Ms. Barnes, from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Ms. Barnes, earlier we raised the issue of reciprocity of standards at our borders. Now that some markets have been opened in the latest agreement, the Canada-United States-Mexico agreement, what assurance do we have that reciprocity is being met when products come in?

I'm seeing a lot of things on the Internet, photos are being posted of tanker trucks coming across the border. What kind of checks are being done? Are checks on products in these tanker trucks being done selectively or are they done for every truck crossing the border?

[Colleen Barnes]

No. It's impossible to check all shipments daily.

We need to target the risk; we have several risk management tools. We can visit other countries to study their systems. Other agencies at the border can do inspections with us. For example, with fertilizer containers, we now stop every shipment to make sure everything is in compliance. That doesn't mean that every container is checked, but the entire shipment is checked. We can also talk to the importers.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Ms. Barnes, when we open our market and allow 3.5% of the dairy market to come from the United States, we have to make sure that what comes in is actually 3.5%, not 8%. That's my concern. Is it a budget issue or a logistical issue that is preventing you from checking everything in each tanker truck?

[Colleen Barnes]

It's impossible to check in every case. However, we can really target the risk to ensure that all Canadian import requirements are met.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

All right.

Mr. Forbes, I imagine that one thing you are working on with your counterpart at the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship is the issue of foreign or immigrant workers. In my constituency, many producers are having a lot of trouble with red tape.

Would it be possible to cut out some of the paperwork?

The current system is very cumbersome. Is there no way to work with the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to cut through some of the red tape?

[Chris Forbes]

Yes. We are also working with the Department of Employment and Social Development, which conducted a program review a year ago.

It's not our responsibility, but we are trying to make sure that our colleagues understand the concerns raised by our stakeholders. I understand that changes will be made eventually, but I don't know exactly when.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

You have no—

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Lehoux and Mr. Forbes.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

I will now give the floor to Mr. Drouin for six minutes.

Go ahead, Mr. Drouin.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Although I'm a member of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food, I also sit on the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. So I would be remiss if I didn't ask questions about the appropriations.

Looking at the appropriations, I see an amount of $44,824,556.

The English version reads:

“Contributions to Assist Farmers, Fish Harvesters, and all Food Production”.

Are these amounts expected to be spent by the end of the fiscal year or over the longer term?

[Chris Forbes]

It will be spent this year. This is the last amount allocated to the temporary foreign worker program or to the temporary foreign worker quarantine period.

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

That makes sense because most of them are arriving now or will be arriving in the next month.

Is that why the amount is so high before March 31?

[Chris Forbes]

We are waiting for applications from the workers who have already arrived, who are already in the country. Their applications are coming in and being evaluated, even for periods before March. That's definitely where the money will be spent.

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

Okay.

In the youth employment and skills strategy, I see a budgeted amount of $5,064,000, to which $3.2 million is now being added.

Why the addition? Is it because you are anticipating greater demand or was it already planned?

[Chris Forbes]

I will let Ms. Walker answer that question.

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

All right.

[Christine Walker, Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Management Branch and Chief Financial Officer, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Thank you very much for the question.

The amount is not a new amount. When we received the funds for the program, we received them in statutory authorities because of the Public Health Events of National Concern Payments Act. That act was repealed in December 2020, so we are transferring the funds from the statutory authorities to our voted authorities so that they're available for spending until March 31.

It's simply a transfer between the statutory authorities and the voted contributions.

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

Okay. Thank you for that.

I am just going to go to the line on the payment for the surplus food purchase program, pursuant to the Public Health Events of National Concern Payments Act. Authorities to date were $50 million, but we're reducing that by $1.456 million.

What is the rationale behind that?

[Christine Walker]

It's the exact same rationale. When we originally got the funds for the surplus food purchase program, they were in statutory authorities according to the act I just mentioned, which was repealed in December. Now we're transferring those funds into our voted contributions, so that we can use them between January and the end of March.

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

I imagine it's the same rationale for the other two amounts, $13.1 million and $3.2 million.

[Christine Walker]

Yes.

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

That's great.

Mr. Chair, I'll be forgoing my time for questions. They've answered all my questions.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Drouin.

We now go to Mr. Perron.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank the officials who have stayed with us for the rest of the meeting.

I will start with Ms. Barnes.

Ms. Barnes, earlier you and Mr. Lehoux talked about reciprocity of standards and inspections. I'm very happy to hear you are doing more inspections on duck, because that has caused issues in the past.

I recently met with Chicken Farmers of Canada. They told me that they saw spent layer imports from the United States increase to 88 million kilos last year. According to them, anything more than 60 million kilos is almost certainly going to be imported illegally. They have developed and proposed a DNA test that would be easy to use and would not be very expensive to implement during the inspections that are already done at points of arrival.

Is the department working on that? Is the department open to implementing it? Have you ever considered it?