Agriculture Committee on June 3rd, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mrs. Bessette.

Mr. Perron, the floor is now yours for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you very much.

Mr. Ference, I would like to go back to the matter of resources. You said earlier that the police will need to be trained, but people from the Canada Food Inspection Agency are telling us that they will not have the resources they need to enforce the act.

If the bill is passed and the police see that an offence has occurred, would it not be enough to communicate the information, so that the procedure can take its course? Could you tell me your views on that?

[Darren Ference]

If the CFIA doesn't have the resources, I still think the RCMP has the resources. They're our resource in rural Canada. They're in every community. They just need to be properly trained on how to access or enter a farm differently from another business. I think they could efficiently and effectively be our resource for this bill.

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

Thank you very much.

Mr. Groleau, do you want to add anything?

[Marcel Groleau]

I believe also that there can be collaboration between the Canada Food Inspection Agency, CFIA, and the inspectors from the Quebec Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. There can be a presence in all provinces. The CFIA already has a presence in abattoirs everywhere. Collaboration with provincial agencies also seems desirable.

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

Do you feel that the local force observing the offence would be enough?

According to the wording of the act, it would be.

[Marcel Groleau]

If the federal and provincial levels could collaborate, but also transfer responsibilities, as we see in other areas, it would help with the enforcement of not only Bill C‑205, but perhaps even aspects of other agreements between the federal government and the provincial government on the whole area of healthy livestock operations.

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

Okay.

You mentioned your proposed amendment and you have included it in your report. We will look at it very carefully.

Would you have anything else to bring up?

[Marcel Groleau]

First, let me congratulate Mr. Barlow, who proposed this bill. Thanks to him, we have been able to have the discussion that we are currently having. I don't know whether we will have the time to see the bill passed before the end of the session, because only a short time is left. But I must thank you and ask you to continue this work, regardless of whether it happens in this session or a subsequent session.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Groleau. Thank you, Mr. Perron.

Now we have Mr. MacGregor for two and a half minutes.

Go ahead, Mr. MacGregor.

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

Thank you, Chair.

I'll continue with the Turkey Farmers of Canada.

In the existing “Prohibitions” section in the parent act, the Health of Animals Act, where prohibitions are defined, when they deal with how to treat a diseased animal—for example, it's illegal to bring it to market, to conceal it or to let it go out into a pasture—they refer to “no person”, whereas Bill C-205 is using the specific language:

No person shall,

but then it includes:

without lawful authority or excuse

There have been a number of cases in which employees at a farm have been responsible for introducing a biosecurity threat. Is there anything we can do to make sure that every person—no matter whether he or she is a protester or a farm employee—is actually respecting those biosecurity protocols? Is there anything further the federal government can be doing to make sure that any person who's entering a place where animals are kept is observing those strict biosecurity protocols?

Are there any suggestions you might have?

[Darren Ference]

I don't have any suggestions on how you can support it. Phil does. I know we have our animal flock care and our on-farm. We're audited by a third party. We're doing all we can do for that.

Phil, do you have more to add?

[Phil Boyd]

I do, thanks, Darren.

Mr. MacGregor, I have a couple of points I can offer really quickly.

One, our programs—and they're probably similar to the other programs you've heard discussed at this committee—all have a training component for the farmer and for farm employees. They're mandatory programs, so that training has to happen. There's continuous improvement as far as farm labour is concerned, at least within our sector, as I hear from talking to any of the farmers who have hired employees.

The second thing that's interesting is that we have CFIA accreditation of our on-farm food safety program through an FPT process. We have also asked for that accreditation on our animal care program, but haven't received it yet. That would really reinforce the kinds of things we're trying to address through our testimony on this bill.

As well, Mr. Barlow, the TFC appreciates the work you've put into this and the leadership you've shown on it.

I don't know if that answers your question entirely, but by way of context, training and that kind of accreditation and recognition for the animal welfare component of our programs—it's the same in other sectors—would be meaningful steps.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Boyd. Thank you, Mr. MacGregor.

That concludes our second hour. I really want to thank our panel.

So I thank Jorge Correa, from the Canadian Meat Council, and Darren Ference and Phil Boyd, from the Turkey Farmers of Canada.

Thank you for appearing.

I also thank Mr. Groleau, General President, and Annie Tessier, Assistant Coordinator, from the Union des producteurs agricoles.

Thank you all for coming to testify.

The meeting is adjourned.