Agriculture Committee on Oct. 29th, 2024

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

That's perfect.

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

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I thank the witnesses for being with us. I'll try to proceed quickly, since I have a lot of questions to ask, but little time to do so.

Mr. Currie, earlier, a witness raised—

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

I'm sorry to interrupt, but there seems to be a technical problem with the interpretation service.

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

Yes, I noticed it. I was trying to concentrate.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

I'll stop the clock.

It seems to be working now.

Please continue, Mr. Perron.

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

Do I have to start all over again?

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Yes, if you don't mind.

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

All right.

I thank the witnesses for being here with us. I'm sorry if you didn't hear my introduction. I'll try to proceed quickly, so please try to give me fairly brief answers.

Mr. Currie, earlier, a witness referred to Bill C‑282 as a problem for the environment. From my point of view, it could be positive, because it promotes local consumption and limits overproduction.

What's your opinion on this?

[Keith Currie]

From that aspect, yes, Bill C-282 is a bill that involves supply management, which is a domestic production program. Certainly, by means of only producing products for domestic consumption, you're limiting transportation factors and you're producing food locally, so it's reducing your carbon footprint overall, so, yes, supply management certainly does that.

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

Thank you very much.

Many witnesses talk about the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, PMRA, product registration and delays. There are significant delays. As was mentioned, the U.S. market is bigger than ours, so multinationals will get their products registered there first.

Mr. Currie, is it possible to consider collaboration with countries that would have similar requirements to ours? Do you think it would be a good idea to share responsibilities and try to establish uniformity within North America, if not with Europe?

Please give a brief answer.

[Keith Currie]

Absolutely. It's not only from a cost perspective, reducing costs. You're not reinventing the wheel. You're not trying to create another study that will come to the same result. Certainly, I would caution that any studies done elsewhere still need to go through that peer review aspect to verify the validity of the study done. Certainly, it would not only expedite access to products, but also cut the cost down tremendously.

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

That's fine, thank you very much.

I'd like to hear from Quebec vegetable growers on the same issue.

[Patrice Léger Bourgoin]

We're talking about an integrated market. We need to think further about market integration. We're talking about integration in product marketing, but can we work upstream and have integration in the registration of different crop protection products, for example? It's a question that needs to be considered.

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

Thank you very much.

Ms. Ward, I'll ask you the same question.

[Katie Ward]

I definitely agree that any harmonization would still need to go through peer review, but I would always caution that harmonization doesn't become a race to the bottom. We need to maintain the standards we want for our products and the safety of our consumers here in Canada.

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

Thank you very much. You raise a very important point.

Of course, there's no question of lowering the quality standard. Rather, we need to keep it the same, in addition to improving efficiency and homogeneity between markets where there is a lot of trade.

I'll come back to Quebec market gardeners. We recently conducted a study on reciprocity of standards, and you raised this issue again. Obviously, this measure would probably cost the government nothing. We could take the resources we allocate in the summer to inspecting local produce and use them to inspect produce from outside. Maybe that would make all the difference.

I'll give you about twenty seconds to react to this.

[Catherine Lefebvre]

All we're asking is to move the workforce and impose on foreign producers the same inspections that Canadian producers must undergo.

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

That's wonderful. Thank you for your clear and relevant answers.

Ms. Ward, is there anything you'd like to emphasize?

If I give you about twenty seconds, what recommendations would you give the committee?

[Katie Ward]

My core recommendation would be to push for an advance on the sustainable agriculture study. I think this is going to provide the means for farmers and ranchers in this country to have the tools to move forward in achieving our climate goals.

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

Thank you. You really are wonderful witnesses, you respect my speaking time.

Mr. Chair, I see myself obliged to use some of my speaking time to ask you a question.

Earlier, you mentioned the letter about Bill C‑280. At the same time, we had adopted the possibility of sending a letter about Bill C‑282, which I'd like to send.

Should we now hold the required discussion on this? Can we instead set aside time to do so at the end of the meeting out of respect for our witnesses?

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

In my opinion, after questions to witnesses, it will be possible to take a few minutes to discuss the letter to be sent on behalf of the committee regarding Bill C‑282.

You have 30 seconds of speaking time left.

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

Thank you. I'm going to offer these 20 seconds to the Association des producteurs maraîchers du Québec.

Is there anything else you'd like to highlight?

[Catherine Lefebvre]

I certainly want to emphasize the need for the rapid execution of risk management programs. Given climate change, this is crucial to the survival of Quebec vegetable producers.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you very much.

Mr. MacGregor now has the floor for six minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to each of our witnesses for being with us today.

Ms. Ward, maybe I'll start with you. When you were making your opening comments.... You and I, of course, have discussed the development of a Canadian farm resilience agency before, but it was interesting that on the NFU website, you put that in the context of what we did in the 1930s in response to extensive drought conditions, which drove thousands of people off the Prairies. The Prairie farm rehabilitation administration was basically set up to help farmers conserve soil, prevent erosion, develop water resources and manage pasture land in response to the conditions they were facing. The NFU argues that with what we're going through today, the CFRA is going to be a similar response to a similar crisis.

Can you elaborate on that and put on the record some of the things you're hoping this agency will do to help farmers build that resilience to what we're facing right now?