Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
My name is Jean‑Marc Ruest, and I am the senior vice-president of corporate affairs and general counsel at Richardson International Limited. I truly appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today.
I'm very honoured to have been granted the opportunity to appear before you today. My name is Jean-Marc Ruest, and as stated previously, I'm senior vice-president of corporate affairs and general counsel for Richardson International Limited.
Richardson International is Canada's leading handler, exporter and processor of Canadian grains and oilseeds. With a network of grain elevators and crop input facilities situated throughout the Canadian Prairies and port terminal facilities in Vancouver, Prince Rupert, Thunder Bay, Hamilton and Sorel, we handle 14 million to 16 million metric tons of grains and oilseeds annually and export to over 50 countries around the world. Proudly headquartered in Winnipeg, we have been involved in agriculture and the international grain trade since 1857. As a company, along with our Canadian producer partners, we have witnessed and worked through world wars, the Great Depression and numerous significant conflicts that have occurred over the past 165 years.
In considering current global food security concerns and how they should be addressed, it is important to note that food sufficiency and food affordability are issues that predate Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While their impact has certainly been exacerbated as a result of the current conflict, it would be unwise to view the situation as a temporary one that will resolve itself when peace is hopefully achieved.
As a result, when we consider what Canada should be doing to address global food insecurity, in our opinion Canada should be doing so through a fundamental long-term policy lens rather than limiting itself to an emergency relief approach.
Canada is in a very fortunate position. We produce way more agri-food products than we consume, so we can export that surplus production to countries that don't have the capacity to meet their food needs. We are known around the world as a reliable supplier of high-quality agricultural products. That competitive edge has generated significant economic spinoffs for Canada and is regularly seen as a sure way to accelerate Canada's economic growth.
When we consider what Canada should be doing to address global food insecurity, the simple answer should be to produce as much as we can and to export as much as we can as quickly as we can. Doing that would not only address an urgent global need but also be beneficial to Canada's economy. However, as obviously beneficial as the strategy would be, we have struggled to adopt the policies required to transform those intentions into action. In fact, I would submit that in many instances, policies that run contrary to the objective are being pursued.
In order to produce as much as we can, we need to encourage the development and adoption of technologies that increase production through a regulatory system that is grounded in science rather than in socio-political preferences. Unfortunately, the primacy of science in the regulation of agriculture and more specifically with respect to the development, registration and use of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides—all tools that are critical to a farmer's ability to increase production—are under threat.
Policies such as the EU's farm to fork strategy will significantly reduce production and increase the cost of grains and oilseeds, obviously adding to the global food security concerns. Canada and other countries on whom the world relies to meet their food supply needs must immediately and unwaveringly commit themselves to science as being the foundation on which agricultural production, regulation and international trade will be based.
We also need to ensure that grains and oilseeds produced throughout Canada can move by rail and through Canadian ports in a timely fashion in order to reliably supply our international customers. Unfortunately, the challenges to our ability to do so for the last several years are well known. Rail service has been an ongoing issue, exacerbated by washouts, fires, blockades and labour disruptions. We have all witnessed how any one of these factors can effectively shut down the Canadian supply chain, including the exports of grains and oilseeds, for extended periods of time. Our ability to efficiently operate terminals and load vessels in key ports such as Vancouver is also under threat for a number of reasons including infrastructure insufficiency.
The question to ask, then, is if we are challenged to move what we currently produce, at a time when the world desperately needs our products, then how do we expect to supply the world with more in the future?
A significant part of the answer depends on our collective commitment to addressing those challenges head-on through a combination of regulatory reforms and increasing capacity, limiting disruptions, particularly those not caused by natural disasters, and investment in critical infrastructure.
Thank you for the opportunity to share my views.
I would be happy to answer your questions.
Thank you very much. I look forward to your questions.
