Agriculture Committee on Dec. 21st, 2021

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you.

Mr. MacDonald, you have six minutes.

[Heath MacDonald, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Thank you, Chair.

I just want to reiterate some of Brian's earlier comments on the devastation to this industry in Prince Edward Island. We're looking at hardship financially, and certainly mentally, as he mentioned, and in terms of our reputation as a global supplier of potatoes, so it's extremely important.

There have been some good questions already that I'd like to follow up on. They're relevant to where the findings of the potato wart were found. They were found in regulated fields. Is that correct?

[Dr. Siddika Mithani]

Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair.

I would like to ask David Bailey to respond to the specific questions on the findings.

[David Bailey, Acting Executive Director, Policy and Programs Branch, Canadian Food Inspection Agency]

Thank you, Chair, for the question.

Yes, the findings were found in fields that are regulated and that are for processing.

[Heath MacDonald, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Thank you, David.

Was the soil management plan that was agreed to by the USDA and CFIA in play? Was it being followed?

[David Bailey]

Yes, the long-term management plan was being followed. In fact, it is the long-term management plan that sets the conditions for the investigation, which allows us to demonstrate that we have data and information to show where the pest is and is not. That will be used as part of the conversations with the United States in order to reopen trade.

[Heath MacDonald, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

We talked a bit about this in an earlier question relevant to January 2015. I'm going to come back to that question as well. We need to know—and the farmers need to know—what is different now that wasn't different then.

They made modifications to that order from the U.S. Has anything been explored relevant to the U.S. making more modifications, based on you saying that you believe 110% in our long-term management plan?

[David Bailey]

Thank you, Chair, for the question.

There are a couple of key points here. Fundamentally, what has changed is the United States' level of risk tolerance when it comes to this. Second, it is the number of finds in a short period of time: having three finds in the course of less than one year.

Of course, from a risk assessor's perspective, they are looking at the 21-year history of the island, as the president outlined at the beginning in her opening remarks, with 33 different finds over the course of that time—three in the last 12 months. This has caused our United States counterparts to have a pause and look for information in order to manage their own risk assessment of P.E.I. and understand our risk mitigation approach. This is about their risk tolerance.

Thank you.

[Heath MacDonald, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Our management plan has worked for 20-some years. We ship to 23 countries around the world. We've never once sent potato wart to any of those countries, because of the management plan, but all of a sudden red flags go up because we had two samples test positive for wart and the U.S. decides, based on everything that's coming back, based on soil samples, which I'm sure we'll get into a little later....

To me, and to a lot of the farmers, there seem to be issues here relevant to the communications. What were the original communications to the USDA on behalf of CFIA and on behalf of our industry?

[Dr. Siddika Mithani]

I would say that since the detection of potato wart in 2021, we have continued to work with them. As David Bailey has explained, it is the accumulated number of detections that the U.S. has been concerned about. Our discussions with the U.S. have really been based on what data analysis and information they require in order for us to resume trade.

What we have heard from the U.S. APHIS is that they would like the results from the national potato wart study. They would like results from the investigation into the 2021 detections of potato wart. They want to do a pest risk assessment. They also want to talk about delimitation of potato wart in P.E.I.

We are working with them on a continuous basis to provide the information.

[Heath MacDonald, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Thank you for that.

There's a mantra in the air that there's miscommunication between our industry, our farmers, and CFIA. Can we access or can you provide all the correspondence to date that you've had with USDA and APHIS?

[Dr. Siddika Mithani]

Conversations and discussions with regulators, from regulator to regulator, are considered confidential. However, I can tell you that we have many conversations to disseminate the information we get from APHIS on a regular basis. We have a number of working groups and sub-working groups. There is collaboration with respect to how we can advance the current issue and what we require—

[Heath MacDonald, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Mr. Chair, I have just one more.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

I'm sorry, Mr. MacDonald.

[Heath MacDonald, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Okay, thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

We're at six minutes.

Mr. Perron, you may go ahead. You have six minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for being here this afternoon.

I want to make sure I fully understand the reason why trade was suspended. We just heard that correspondence between the U.S. and Canadian regulators is considered confidential, and that bothers me a little. I want to understand the reason why we suspended our own exports.

The question is for Mr. Bailey or Ms. Mithani.

[Dr. Siddika Mithani]

Thank you for your question.

I'm going to ask Ms. Lapointe to answer.

[Sylvie Lapointe, Vice-President, Policy and Programs Branch, Canadian Food Inspection Agency]

Thank you for your question.

As the CFIA president mentioned, the regulations prescribed under the Plant Protection Act stipulate that, when we are unable to meet the requirements of an importing country, we do not have the necessary legal authority to issue an export certificate. Since we knew the U.S. could not accept seed potatoes or washed potatoes from P.E.I., we had no choice but to temporarily suspend exports to the U.S.

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

Thank you, Ms. Lapointe.

Will the fact that we were the ones to suspend exports make it easier to resume trade, or will it make no difference?

[Sylvie Lapointe]

In our experience with U.S. federal orders, they can't be changed. We have never had a situation where we've been able to get the decision rescinded. As you pointed out, the fact that we control the temporary suspension will make it easier to reopen the border.

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

Very good.

I've read up on the issue.

Is the cleaning process that was adopted in 2015 to eliminate the risk of spread of potato wart still considered effective?

[Sylvie Lapointe]

We consider the process to be effective.

That is why the ministerial order issued by Ms. Bibeau, the minister, still authorizes the movement of washed potatoes from P.E.I. throughout Canada. Not only are the potatoes washed, but they are also treated with a sprout inhibitor, as per regulations. We are confident that table stock potatoes from P.E.I. do not pose a risk when it comes to spreading potato wart.

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

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand it, P.E.I. potatoes are being sold across Canada and are not considered to pose a risk of spread to potato farms in Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick or elsewhere. Is that correct?