Evidence of meeting #2 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was wart.
A recording is available from Parliament.
General Manager, Prince Edward Island Potato Board
Yes. Our understanding today is that it is the destruction costs to remove the potatoes in the warehouses, put them in the field and put them through snow blowers, and that's a portion of the $28 million. It's $21 million.
Conservative
John Barlow Conservative Foothills, AB
This is not a compensation package for the producers in any way. They are still looking at you to access AgriStability as your management plan. Would you look at AgriStability as a product that was ever designed for a catastrophe like this? Is this what AgriStability is there for?
General Manager, Prince Edward Island Potato Board
I can't answer that, but what I am hearing from my producers is that if a producer has a year-end in July, for example, it will be this time next year before they'll know the impact of this situation on their financial situation.
First and foremost, they want the border open. They don't want assistance. But if it's required, yes, they're going to need something relatively quickly. I don't think AgriStability has the ability, from what I understand of it, to do that.
Conservative
John Barlow Conservative Foothills, AB
What is the reaction from growers to hear that this is maybe going to last until 2023 before—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Kody Blois
Mr. Barlow, I apologize. We're at six minutes.
Mr. Donald, perhaps you can table that and answer it in one of your future questions.
Liberal
Heath MacDonald Liberal Malpeque, PE
I have a couple of questions for Mr. Bailey.
We've talked a lot about soil testing. Soil testing coming out of the U.S., in every article you read and every podcast you listen to relevant to potatoes—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Kody Blois
Mr. MacDonald, I'm going to interrupt you. Mr. Bailey was part of the last panel.
Liberal
Liberal
Heath MacDonald Liberal Malpeque, PE
All right. This is for anybody from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
Why is there such a particular emphasis put on soil testing with the other mitigation that is being done on Prince Edward Island? Are you aware of the other mitigation?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food
I'm afraid I don't feel I'm in a position to answer that question. I'm sure my colleagues from CFIA or with the committee earlier could get back to the member and to the committee in written form. I don't think I can help on that one, I'm afraid.
Liberal
Heath MacDonald Liberal Malpeque, PE
Okay. Thank you.
Mr. Donald, just quickly, could you tell us for the record what other mitigations Prince Edward Island farmers carry out?
General Manager, Prince Edward Island Potato Board
There would be many sources of mitigation in terms of preventing the spread of the disease in particular. Is that what you're referring to?
General Manager, Prince Edward Island Potato Board
There would be biosecurity measures, which would be cleaning and disinfecting between fields. It's one of the best management practices—it would be one of the E1s—but there are also all kinds of observations. Eighty-seven per cent of our crop has crop insurance, and they take samples. I think they take a 60-pound sample every 10 acres. For all of our potatoes that go to Cavendish Farms, which is half the crop, they take two 25-pound baskets for every tandem truckload, which I think is about 85,000 truckloads a year.
I could go on and on. There are many ways that the crop is.... Things are done to prevent, using best biosecurity practices, but also to observe whether or not the disease is present. In all of those observation ways, they've never seen the potato wart, for example; so through observation.
Liberal
Heath MacDonald Liberal Malpeque, PE
Thank you, Mr. Donald.
I want to quickly go back to an issue that was raised. Obviously the U.S. has several pests, such as the nematode pest, subject to quarantine in several states. Basically, they use the same marketing policies as we do to export into Canada as Canada exports into the U.S. Has this been raised in any of the discussions relevant to CFIA? I'm wondering if anybody here can tell me that this trade issue has been a discussion, or a flag raised, and that there could be possibilities of Canada doing the same thing maybe to the U.S. in regard to the Idaho potatoes or those pests that are so high in quarantine.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food
Mr. Chair, I could try to take a stab at that. Greg may well wish to add to it.
As I mentioned earlier, we have created a working group with the province and the industry and the full value chain represented there. Part of what we discuss there are trade measures and trade options as part of the menu of things we can consider as part of a way forward on this issue. We do have a forum where we can talk with those most affected on the various options to try to move this issue forward with the United States.
Liberal
Heath MacDonald Liberal Malpeque, PE
I'm hearing that there was a discussion relevant to that with the U.S., or was that internally within Canada?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food
We've created a forum within Canada to talk about what our options are for addressing this in terms of plant health, in terms of supporting producers who are affected and in terms of trade levers and trade measures that are available to us.
Liberal
Heath MacDonald Liberal Malpeque, PE
Thank you.
My final comment, Mr. Chair, is that this is a very serious and drastic situation that farmers and producers on Prince Edward Island are being held to. I just want to stress the sense of urgency to come to a resolution.
Communication is key to this. I've certainly been fearful over the past little while that communication has been lacking in some regard in some essentials. I want to know if anybody here can tell me the role Mr. Gorrell is going to play in this whole situation.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food
Mr. Chair, perhaps I could try.
Greg Donald will be Fred's co-chair, so he may have a sector. He knows the trade world and he knows Canada-U.S. relations and he understands the industry. We've created this forum, this working group, and he will chair it. That will bring the relevant players to the table. I think a big part of his role will be to make sure that communications back and forth between interested parties and Canada are as clear as possible to try to minimize any misunderstandings or miscommunication.
General Manager, Prince Edward Island Potato Board
If I could add to that, Mr. MacDonald, we were pleased with the announcement that Fred Gorrell will be joining the effort. Today was our first working group meeting, and as Tom said, he did co-chair that meeting, and we hope that he'll take an active role in the discussions between the USDA and the CFIA in that exercise.
Thank you.