Agriculture Committee on May 19th, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Great.

[Leah Taylor Roy]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the member for Kitchener—Conestoga for sharing his time.

I had a question regarding the departmental plan for 2022-23. I noted that it's considering changing policies and programs ahead of the next agricultural policy framework “to stimulate the adoption of sustainable practices to help reduce emissions, increase resiliency particularly for agricultural soils, reduce risks, and open up new opportunities for producers.”

We all know how important the agricultural sector is in helping us fight climate change, especially with carbon sequestration, but I'm wondering what specific changes the department is considering that would encourage farmers to do even more to adopt climate-friendly practices and some of the new ones that have been introduced.

[Paul Samson]

I'm just looking here to give you the full details to respond to your question.

The minister mentioned one specific program of $150 million, the resilient agricultural landscape program. Right now it is one of the programs being negotiated with the provinces and territories in the context of the next policy framework. There are a whole series of programs in the climate change space. If you add them up, over $1 billion is invested in on-farm agriculture solutions, clean technology programs—both R and D, and adoption programs immediately—and R and D spending.

[Leah Taylor Roy]

Thank you so much.

I want to follow up on that. I know the United States Department of Agriculture, the USDA, requires producers who participate in its federal crop insurance program to comply with certain conservation requirements—for example, not planting crops on highly eroded land or converted wetlands.

Would the department consider pursuing similar requirements for business risk management in Canada?

[Paul Samson]

There is already an existing mechanism in the federal-provincial-territorial framework for environmental plans. They are fairly widespread in use but are not mandatory and are not used by the majority of producers. That is one of the discussions in the federal-provincial negotiations: How can those plans be used? Are they valuable to link to certain programs? What kinds of incentives can be created?

What the member is noting is very much one of the active conversations in the federal-provincial negotiations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Mr. Samson and Ms. Taylor Roy.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to get back to the questions that were asked earlier.

Mr. Samson, I don't know to what extent you would be able to answer my question about temporary foreign workers.

How can we harmonize the federal and the Quebec process? I know that it's very complex. Producers have to go through the Quebec process, and then go through it once again with the federal government.

Have you had discussions with Quebec about simplifying the process as part of the reform we've been promised?

[Paul Samson]

Thank you for the question.

There are lots of discussions between Canada and the provinces, including Quebec. However, as the minister said, there are not as many on this subject with Quebec's department of agriculture, fisheries and food. That's part of the broader framework the minister mentioned earlier. That's about all I can say on this.

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

Earlier, you mentioned assistance with bees and solutions you are trying to find in order to import bees.

Are you envisaging the possibility of providing emergency financial assistance to producers for them to renew the bee population so that it will be at a respectable level for next year?

[Paul Samson]

As I was saying earlier, based on our analyses, the system is still relatively stable in terms of bees. We still have partnerships in place for imports. We are closely monitoring potential shortcomings or problems that might arise, and are prepared to increase financial assistance to respond as required.

For the time being, we're convinced that things are going fairly well.

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

Can you tell us about the negotiations that were held with Great Britain for it to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the negotiations that were held to renew the bilateral agreement between Great Britain and Canada? It was the former that was quickly renewed during the last Parliament.

People are worried, particularly about production subject to supply management. Great Britain was exporting a lot of cheese here under the agreement with Europe.

Can you give us any details about this to reassure our producers?

[Paul Samson]

It's the Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development who is the lead minister on this.

However, I think that the government clearly indicated that it was going to keep a strong supply management system and that it was not going to suggest a solution that was not in Canada's interests. I don't have any other updates I could give you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Samson.

I'd like to take advantage of the fact that representatives of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are here to return to what Mr. Barlow was saying when he addressed the matter of genome editing and talked about some studies in this area.

The process is still under review, but it's still somewhat obscure. I'm not necessarily against the use of genome editing, but many people have told us of their concerns about how it is being done and how it would be monitored afterwards.

Ms. Lapointe, could you comment on the process?

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

Thank you for the question.

We are currently reviewing our regulatory guidelines on genetic modification and technologies related to genome editing. We held some broad consultations last year and are now doing some follow‑up work with stakeholders who have given us their comments.

As you may know, the points of view are rather divergent. Before publishing these new guidelines, we want to make sure that they are based on the best available scientific advice, that they are transparent to Canadians, that they are predictable for people in the industry and that they encourage innovation.

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

Do you have a timeline for this process? When will it be finished and when do you intend to announce it?

[Sylvie Lapointe]

We don't have a date yet, but there's a lot of discussion at the moment with the various parties.

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

Thank you, Ms. Lapointe.

I have some questions now for the department's representatives.

Have you had any in‑house discussions about small-scale production of things like mead and cider, which might be affected by the excise tax owing to the complaint made by Australia?

Have you done any work on this? Can we expect a measure or an exemption for these products?

[Paul Samson]

The Department of Finance is entirely responsible for the tariff. We don't have anything to do with it.

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

Okay.

With respect to…

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Mr. Perron, you have only 30 seconds left.

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

It's difficult to find the right wording for a question in 30 seconds, Mr. Chair. Thank you for warning me and I think we'll wait and take two minutes and 45 seconds on the next round.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

We could do that.

Mr. MacGregor, you now have the floor for six minutes.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Samson, my question follows the subject matter that Ms. Taylor Roy was talking to you about. She was talking to you about the next agricultural policy framework. It's trying to stimulate the adoption of sustainable practices.

With regard to the term “sustainable practices”, how do you define those terms? Is it by metrics? Are you trying to achieve a certain level of carbon sequestration or a reduction in fertilizer use or pesticide use? Those terms can be very open to interpretation, so could you elaborate a bit more? If we're to understand these terms from the department's point of view, it would give a better sense of how those goals could actually be put into place.

[Paul Samson]

Yes, there is a focus on sustainability in the next policy framework. The Guelph statement, which came out in November of last year, showed the ambition there.

In terms of how to define sustainability, it is a bit broader than just pure environment, but there are discussions under way about how to define and quantify the emission reductions, for example, to be clear on the objectives and the results that would be achieved. Those numbers have not been finalized, but they're under discussion.

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

Are they going to focus, do you think, exclusively on emissions, or will there be other factors at play? Maybe a farm would be able to reduce its pesticide use through alternative management practices, etc.