Agriculture Committee on June 13th, 2022

[Jean-Marc Ruest]

As far as rail goes, the Western Grain Elevator Association and others have made a number of recommendations, so I would encourage you to take a look at those.

That said, we need to improve the level of rail performance. It may be a good idea to consider increased competition.

It's also necessary to increase infrastructure capacity for things such as bridges and tunnels. Similarly, more tracks are needed in Vancouver.

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

Thank you very much.

Ms. King, you talked about increasing domestic fertilizer production to be less dependent on outside sources. You said it's not magic; you can't flip a switch to adjust production levels.

Still, have you estimated what percentage of local demand we could meet within the next few years?

[Catherine King]

I don't have any particular forecast on that, but I think our members would look for a regulatory environment that encourages investment within the industry and that really looks at a balancing of both the economic goals and environmental goals.

I think we play a pivotal role in supplying global fertilizer. About 95% of the potash produced here is exported globally, and 40% of the nitrogen is exported to primarily the U.S. I would say that Canada helps eastern and western Canadian farmers, but you also have to look at the global context in terms of Canada being global leader in producing fertilizer.

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

Thank you, Ms. King.

Mr. Saik, you said we needed to recognize the practices and technologies farmers are using, rather than make decisions about specific thresholds based on predetermined objectives.

Can you talk about that in more detail, please?

[Robert Saik]

These are actually qualitative and quantitative measurements. For example, you can measure whether or not a farmer soil-tests. You can document whether or not a farmer is matching his nitrogen recommendations, or balance for fertilizer recommendations, to those soil tests and recommendations. You can determine, very quickly, whether or not he's using slow-release nitrogens. You can document whether or not he's using precision agriculture.

All of those features and technologies lend themselves to a higher level of fertilizer-use efficiency. That fertilizer-use efficiency increases crop yield while simultaneously decreasing the environmental footprint. Those are the things we should be measuring. Those are the things we should be rewarding farmers for.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Mr. Saik. We'll have to leave it there.

Thank you, Mr. Perron.

Mr. MacGregor, you have six minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'll jump right into it. My first question is for Richardson International.

Last month, there was an article written by Sylvain Charlebois about the massive increase in the price of vegetable oil. He noted there were significant increases in palm oil, but canola oil is also up 55%, on average, over the the last six months, I believe. That's very good for our farmers, but it also reduces the purchasing power of the countries we're exporting to.

I have two questions.

First, Mr. Ruest, can you tell me what this has done to the state of Canada's exports, or are they still strong? Can you start off with that question, please?

[Jean-Marc Ruest]

The exports continue to be strong.

We have to remember that, in Canada, over the last six months or so, we've had a short crop. We've had production reduced by about 40%. We talked about the food-versus-fuel issue. A lot of our production, now, is being called for by the biofuel industry, so we're producing and exporting more canola oil than we would have been exporting canola seed. Those are the factors, really.

I think we have a very healthy export industry in canola, but there are changing dynamics at play.

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

Thank you.

We're all very well aware of the things the government needs to do with respect to our supply chain. We have just tabled a report in the House of Commons that details many of those issues.

However, with the increase in canola prices, how are Richardson and other players in the private sector reinvesting those profits to make sure they're stepping up their side of the equation?

[Jean-Marc Ruest]

I don't think it's necessarily a question of exporters' profits being increased by that 50%, 60% or more that you're seeing. What we're doing is selling and buying at.... The selling price of the commodity matches, to a large extent, the purchase price we have to pay to be able to source that commodity.

It's a global market. We are competing against worldwide suppliers, as well, so our pricing has to match. It's a very competitive global marketplace, so it's not a question of seeing this increase on the store shelves and therefore...that is a direct correlation to the profits being made by the people handling that commodity.

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

Thank you for that clarification.

Mr. Saik, I'd like to turn to you.

We had Oxfam in a previous panel here. They've done some great work detailing the financial costs of climate change. They noted that, over the last 20 years, we've seen an 819% increase in extreme weather-related humanitarian funding appeals, and that the economic cost of extreme weather events, just last year, was $329 billion—a figure expected to increase as we go into the next decade. If we're talking about inflation, that's certainly one we have to keep on our radar.

In developing countries, especially in the Horn of Africa, they're now suffering from this in multiple ways. Not only are they having to tackle the effects of climate disasters but farmers are also having to deal with the loss in production. The country suffers, as a whole, because it then has reduced purchasing power.

There's been a lot of talk about using Canadian expertise. You mentioned soil health. Can you talk about some of the ways Canada can specifically step in to help those developing countries achieve more resiliency? The projection for the future does not look good, especially in the figures we've seen presented.

[Robert Saik]

I have experience working on the ground in Kenya and Nigeria. I have a stake in a farm in Uganda. The first thing we would do is subsidize soil sampling, because when you sample soils and get soil analysis done, you help small landholders understand where the constraints are in their nutrient balance in the soil.

The second thing you would do is encourage policies that encourage genetic engineering because, in many cases, the ability of us to engineer drought-tolerant and saline-tolerant crops in many of those areas is absolutely essential. We would also encourage the utilization of technology to increase pest resistance.

You can't feed the population of tomorrow on yesterday's technology. Canada is a leader in technology adoption. I think one of our primary exports as a country should be the agricultural technology that we have in our heads.

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

Thank you.

In the interests of time, I'll leave it there, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Mr. MacGregor.

Colleagues, we have just a minute or two before the bells. Let me, on behalf of all of you, thank our witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Ruest with Richardson and Mr. Saik, appearing for himself—we certainly welcome your testimony—and Ms. King and Mr. Graham.

I apologize, Mr. Graham, that we weren't able to get you in, but Ms. King stepped in and did a great job.

Thank you so much.

Colleagues, we'll call it there. On Thursday, we are going to be studying Bill C-234. Mr. Lobb has confirmed and will be before the committee.

On Monday, the intention is to go to one two-hour panel on cannabis, as Mr. MacGregor asked. I need your witnesses, so that the clerk has them. If you haven't already sent some of your witnesses to the clerk, please do so by the end of today.

I think we'll leave it at that. We'll let everyone make sure that they're able to vote.

Thank you. The meeting is adjourned.