Evidence of meeting #34 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 waste.
A recording is available from Parliament.
6:10 p.m.
Conservative
Warren Steinley Conservative Regina—Lewvan, SK
Thank you very much.
I have 15 seconds left and I know there are lots of other questions, but I thank you for being here. I appreciate your taking the time to present before the committee.
6:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative John Barlow
Thanks, Mr. Steinley.
I will now move to Ms. Taylor Roy for six minutes, please.
6:10 p.m.
Liberal
Leah Taylor Roy Liberal Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
There are three very different areas today.
I'm going to start by asking Ms. Nikkel about the food waste crisis that's facing us right now, which I think is very closely related to the climate crisis and the world hunger crisis, in fact, and is fuelling them. You mentioned the surplus food rescue program that was in place and how successful that was. You mentioned that now we need it more than ever.
Why is it that we need it more than we did during COVID? Would you put that program back exactly as it was? What might you change in that program?
6:15 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Second Harvest
I think everything evolves. It is as important—more important—as we head into a recession, when there are more Canadians than ever before who can't access food. Funnily enough, even though the program ended when we closed the border to potatoes, we started it again when we got funded to purchase some of those potatoes, while a whole lot of them were destroyed.
It is a really critical program that supports producers. It supports Canadians. It supports the environment. It's a triple win. I don't know why we're not going to do this.
6:15 p.m.
Liberal
Leah Taylor Roy Liberal Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
Would you make any changes to that program?
6:15 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Second Harvest
Based on the commodities, I think that maybe we would open it up. It was very specific to COVID and a result of the restaurant closures, so it was about that big pact and all that food. I think we'd have to open it up and expand it.
6:15 p.m.
Liberal
Leah Taylor Roy Liberal Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
Okay. That's fantastic. Thank you very much.
I was also wondering.... You mentioned the tax credit that right now applies only to producers—
6:15 p.m.
Liberal
Leah Taylor Roy Liberal Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
It's in four provinces, so are you looking for a federal tax credit, then? Who would you like it to apply to? What is your thought on that?
6:15 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Second Harvest
I think all businesses should have access to an incentive to get them to reduce their food waste. I don't often look to the south and say, “Wow, they have some really good tax incentives,” but they do on food waste, and it's working. It is eliminating their food loss and waste in the U.S.
6:15 p.m.
Liberal
Leah Taylor Roy Liberal Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
That's very good.
I'd like to turn to you, Ms. Citeau. You focused on international trade, which we know Canada does very well at as an exporter of food. We could do more by some of the changes you have mentioned, but when we're talking about global food insecurity, it seems that some of the problems that have been realized in the last while have to do with issues that cause problems when it comes to trade: things like wars, climate events, obviously, and unreliable partners you can't trust to necessarily deliver the goods that they say they will.
I'm wondering what you think about the balance between actually increasing our self-reliance within Canada and trying to ensure we can produce more here, because it seems to me that addresses some of these issues better, perhaps, than increasing our trade with other countries.
6:15 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance
The broad view is that there's a need to manage risk, and being self-sufficient in food does not do this. In a global food system where we are intertwined—and we see that very clearly with our supply chains across North America—we are stronger by managing risk and reinforcing our supply chains and our relationships with key trading partners, rather than being—
6:15 p.m.
Liberal
Leah Taylor Roy Liberal Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
I understand that idea, but I would like to interject.
How do we manage the risk of a war in Ukraine, or how do we manage the risk of climate change, when global trade actually increases the climate crisis? How do we manage those particular risks that we've been facing recently?
6:15 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance
By having better rules, modernized rules, and a strong and functioning dispute settlement system at the World Trade Organization.
6:15 p.m.
Liberal
Leah Taylor Roy Liberal Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
Thank you.
Mr. Halstead, along the same lines, and I love the term Sask Wheat that you use, we know that our grain farmers in Saskatchewan, as well as those of other commodities, are really efficient. They have done an amazing job in terms of maximizing productivity, minimizing fertilizer use and all sorts of other things.
When we're talking about global food insecurity, given how much farmers in other areas, for example, you mentioned Africa, might be able to improve their productivity, do you feel it's useful for Canada to try to export some of our practices and our technology to other countries to help increase their local production, as opposed to exporting more wheat to those countries?
6:15 p.m.
Board Chair, Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission
Yes and no. I want to produce as much as I can to sell in the world market, and I think my neighbouring farmers do too. A number of those things have gone because of trade. Many of our air drills, for example, were developed in the Prairies, and they are used around the world now.
Our equipment is used around the world. Ideas aren't just local. There is wheat breeding, for example, that I talked about. There's a sharing of germ plasm that happens around the world that looks for the best traits that may produce the next new variety that's better, so there is some sharing.
Obviously, we don't go out.... As a producer and a member of a farm organization, that's not my job. It's not my role to go to another country to try to help them improve, but I think—
6:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative John Barlow
Mr. Halstead, I'm sorry. You're out of time.
Thanks, Ms. Taylor Roy.
Ms. Larouche, you have the floor for six minutes.
6:20 p.m.
Bloc
Andréanne Larouche Bloc Shefford, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to thank the second group of witnesses for being with us today to discuss the food insecurity we have currently been observing. It's an important subject.
My first question is for Ms. Nikkel, who described some of the things we have been doing successfully in Quebec.
According to our information notes, your organization commissioned a report in 2019 on avoidable food waste in the Canadian farm supply chain. You spoke about it to some extent, but I'd like some further details.
Could you give us some concrete examples of food waste in various sectors? Do you have any suggestions for us on how to prevent this waste?
6:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Second Harvest
Absolutely.
Second Harvest commissioned Value Chain Management International officials to do the research, because we're a charity. They are experts in this field. I have this right here, and we did have recommendations. We show right across the supply chain—and we use a tomato as an example—this is where it gets lost in processing, this is where it gets lost on the farm and this is where it gets lost.... Milk is getting dumped.
I absolutely would give everybody “The Avoidable Crisis of Food Waste” research report to read. We had recommendations that were to measure, to set targets and to act. We also had some recommendations around best before dates, and following the U.K.'s example right now that “best before” doesn't mean “bad after”, so why do we keep doing this? We have a whole lot of recommendations in the back of the document that I'm happy to share with everybody here.
6:20 p.m.
Bloc
Andréanne Larouche Bloc Shefford, QC
Thank you for your willingness to send us this information.
It's crucial to address food bank issues. There are some food banks in my riding and they too would like to be rewarded for their best practices. It's important for producers to work with them and to make every possible effort in this area.
My next question is for you, Ms. Citeau.
I noticed on the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance website that you were arguing strongly for exports of Canadian products in a free market. Having spoken with our local processors, I know that this is a crucial issue.
Would it be useful to have a standards reciprocity policy to prevent local producers from having to face unfair competition? As you say on your organization's site, standards in some other countries are not always as high as ours, whether in Europe, the United States, China, or even Brazil.
6:20 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance
In my remarks, I commented on the need for competitive access to global markets. What that means is that it's a level playing field, an environment that enables our farmers from Quebec or Saskatchewan to have the same level of access to the world's global markets as a farmer in Australia or Europe.
That's about the rules and also about the harmonization of standards. This is why one of the CAFTA priorities—and I think I touched on this in my remarks— is to make sure that Canada is working with international partners and at different multilateral institutions like the OIE and the FAO, those international standard-setting agencies, so that there is work towards this.
6:25 p.m.
Bloc
Andréanne Larouche Bloc Shefford, QC
The fact remains that at the moment, standards in various countries differ from ours, particularly in Europe, as I mentioned, but in other places as well, and that creates an unfair situation for our producers and processors. Indeed, the lack of standards reciprocity prevents Canada from being competitive internationally.
How can standards be improved in a way that would reduce disparities?
6:25 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance
Certainly Europe is a market where a large portion of our membership has frustrations, in large part, in the context of the Canada-EU free trade agreement, as the European Union is slow to abide by the spirit of the agreement. Certainly some of those issues are very familiar to them.
The solution is better implementation and better enforcement of the rules. I'm not saying that in the EU context specifically, but overall there needs to be.... When our officials go out and negotiate free trade agreements, there needs to be—in advance—clear understanding and close work with the industry so that we understand the regulatory framework that we are looking at so that we are better prepared.
Overall, I will say it's better rules and better implementation and enforcement mechanisms.
6:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative John Barlow
Thank you.
Thanks, Madame Larouche.
We now go to Mr. MacGregor for six minutes, please.
6:25 p.m.
NDP
Alistair MacGregor NDP Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
Thank you very much, Chair.
Ms. Citeau, I'd like to start with you.
In our previous panel, we had Professor Charlebois. I was taking notes during his opening statement. I believe he said that our exports are continuing to grow at a pretty significant pace, and that we hit $82 billion in 2021. Is that something you can confirm? Does that sound like a figure that you've heard before?