Agriculture Committee on June 1st, 2021

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

Thank you very much for that.

I'm going to switch directions to the Dairy Farmers of Canada.

Thank you for being here today, and happy World Milk Day. I'm a big proponent of milk and always have been.

One thing that I've asked and talked about during the carbon-offset framework is the idea that, basically from 2018 and prior, you're not going to get credit for your good environmental practices. We talked about biodigesters, which are different from biomass. Biodigesters were put in place for manure handling. Could you give kind of an idea of why you should be given credit for those biodigesters and an idea of the amount of money it costs to put those on your farms?

[David Wiens]

I would begin by saying that biodigesters.... As I said earlier, a project like that is into the millions. Biodigesters are more involved than simply putting the manure into them and away you go. Feeding a biodigester is like feeding a cow. You have to be very specific. They require certain rations to work successfully.

For a farm, there is risk in doing that. We know what the benefits are, but first of all, it's a huge financial investment, and you sure hope that everything goes right with the digester.

Maybe you want to clarify part of your question there.

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

For sure, it's a huge upfront investment. What I'm saying is how unfair it is is that this government is putting forward the idea of business as usual, that practices that have been done up to 2018 aren't going to get the environmental credit they deserve. I think there's a big push-back against that. We've heard from soil conservation groups in Saskatchewan that farmers should be given credit for the good practices they have done within this carbon-offset framework. For some reason, the Minister of the Environment and the Minister of Agriculture have picked this 2018 deadline for business as usual.

I think this area is just an example of how much money dairy producers have put up front for some of the better technologies they have adopted to lower their carbon footprints, and the gist of my argument is that they should get credit for that.

[David Wiens]

Certainly, it's a challenge when improvements made in best management practices and investments on farm are not acknowledged, because in a sense some farmers may actually be waiting until this thing happens, rather than... It's also important to reward early adopters.

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

I have one quick question. I hope you put forward a submission saying that we should move that date of 2018 and really look as a committee at the business as usual practices. I hope you can put forward a submission to make sure that that is looked at as a committee going forward.

[David Wiens]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Steinley.

Unfortunately, we have a hard stop at 5:30 today. We're going to have to cut it off here. I see that people would have another hour of questions for these witnesses.

Mr. Lampron, president of Dairy Farmers of Canada, thank you for being with us today.

Mr. Wiens, vice-president, thanks for being here with us.

Mr. Qualman, from the the National Farmers Union, you have a very interesting way of looking at this.

Perhaps we can invite all of you a second time.

Thanks everyone. We shall see you all on Thursday.

The meeting is adjourned.