Agriculture Committee on Dec. 3rd, 2024

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Go ahead very briefly, Mr. Barlow.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Very briefly, I know the Liberal colleagues have been upset by some of the questions we've been asking.

I have to ask why the Liberal member for Malpeque did not ask a single question about the seed potato issue, which is a crisis in P.E.I.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

We're getting a little—

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

That's not a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

I've become a bit liberal here, but we're having some fun back and forth.

Mr. Perron, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, thank you for your co‑operation. I'd like to get back to the pork issue.

If I understood your response to my previous question correctly, you're saying there are negotiations under way with the countries we sell pork to create zones if cases of African swine fever occur. That's great. However, Bloc Québécois members have met with pork producers, and they asked for an emergency fund for just such an eventuality. I assume they met with you, too, or with people from your department.

Are you working on setting up such an emergency fund?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

I'm always working on emergency funds, Mr. Perron. We have programs in place to deal with emergency situations. As you're fully aware, the BRM programs are set up for that. You and I discussed the issue in your province, and it came to fruition.

I didn't hear from you, but we got that done.

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

Minister, that brings me to an interesting subject, the AgriRecovery program, which we discussed for Quebec. You just alluded to it.

If I understand correctly, in 2025, we should receive $22.2 million to repair damage cause in the summer of 2023. Businesses disappeared over those two years. Will you bring them back to life when you give them their cheques? To be honest, it makes no sense. We need to rework the programs.

I have another question for you.

This week, I met someone who works for the committee responsible for auditing Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. I was interested in how these people collect data. They told me that they had also contacted people from your department, but had not yet received a response. I hope you'll meet with them. Will you? Will you soon be reworking the agricultural insurance programs, which we both know are no longer working?

You have 30 seconds for your reply, Minister.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Yes, and it was discussed in Whitehorse at our last federal-provincial-territorial conference. It's not an easy issue to deal with, because you're dealing with provinces, territories and the federal government. It's certainly true that the programs need to be adjusted to fit the times, and we're working hard to do that, but you have to work with the provinces in order to do that.

Your point is well taken. The programs need to be adjusted, and we're working hard on that. I thank you for that question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you to you both.

Mr. MacGregor, you have two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Minister, my colleague Richard Cannings, whom I share this committee with, had a good meeting with the Deans Council for Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine. I understand from that meeting that they submitted a funding proposal for vaccine development to address the spread of zoonotic diseases, like H5N1, but that funding request was denied.

When it comes to this specific area, there's a lot of collaboration between you and Minister Holland because of the nature of how the CFIA works.

Given the fact that in British Columbia, a teenager became infected, this still poses a very grave risk to our entire poultry industry. As the minister responsible for agriculture, do you not think the decision to deny that funding to the Deans Council, which does incredible work, was short-sighted?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Thank you very much, Mr. MacGregor. I appreciate your question.

You fully understand that I will not evaluate whether a vaccine is appropriate or not, but—

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

I understand that.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

—I understand that your question is whether I think—

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

It was the funding to develop the vaccine.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

It's on developing a vaccine.

We have spent a lot of money as a government to develop vaccines in many different areas.

I'll let Robert deal with that question.

[Robert Ianiro]

Mr. Chair, through you, I'm not familiar with the request that is being referred to and what involvement the CFIA would have had in that decision. As it was pointed out, there's no doubt this would have been closely tied with Health Canada, but I would be happy to take that request away.

We invest, for sure, in both ASF and HPAI vaccinations with other governments worldwide. I would have to take away this particular issue that's been raised. I'm not familiar with it and what would have led to the denial of funding.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

We'll get the information for you.

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

Okay. I would appreciate it if you could submit that to the committee.

I only have a few seconds. On the subject of temporary foreign workers, there have been some problems identified with the program. How are you advocating with your colleagues around the cabinet table to make sure that the pathway to permanent residency...?

If they're good enough to work here temporarily, which many do for years on end, how are you continuing to advocate for that pathway to be strengthened toward permanent residency?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

I'm glad you brought up temporary foreign workers. It's a big issue, and it's held at 20% for agriculture. That is vitally important.

There is an issue with immigration and housing, which we had to address. Temporary foreign workers are vitally important to the agricultural sector. I can assure you it was a hot issue. I'm very pleased that we were able to keep it at 20% because it's used in your province and right across the country. In fact, the apples would not be picked if you did not have foreign workers, and I'm fully aware of that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

We're going to go to our final five minutes for the Conservatives and five minutes for the Liberal colleagues, and then we'll excuse the minister because that will be an hour. We'll then have a little time for the officials.

Mr. Steinley, it's over to you for five minutes.

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

Thank you.

Minister, thank you very much for coming to Regina. It's not been since 2019 that we've seen a Liberal in Saskatchewan, so they're kind of like unicorns—we hear about them, but we don't see them very often. I appreciate your coming out.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Thank you.

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

The last time we chatted we did talk about the capital gains tax. I'd like to revisit that conversation where you said you weren't aware that it was going to be in the budget, which is a bit of a surprise, but you've had your answer to that.

Since it has been delivered in the budget now, how many stakeholder consultations have you had about the capital gains, and could you table the names of those stakeholders you met with specifically on the capital gains increase?