Agriculture Committee on Feb. 10th, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Ms. Sullivan and Mr. Drouin.

I'll now give the floor to Mr. Perron for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll try to keep it short.

Mr. Lowe, it's good to see you. I have a very quick question and I'd like an equally quick answer.

In your opinion, should the federal government provide financial support for the development of new slaughter sites, such as local sites, to reduce concentration and increase regional processing activities?

[Bob Lowe]

Our position is that more processing is always better. I'm not sure if direct financial support or if maybe just the easing of regulations might be the answer.

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

Thank you.

Ms. Sullivan, you heard the questions that I asked the officials earlier about the code of conduct. I was told that discussions were well under way.

I know that you're on the round table. How are things going? Are you optimistic?

[Kathleen Sullivan]

You know, they're difficult conversations, but I am an optimist. I'm an optimist because we have gotten to a place, after many years of discussion and debate within industry, where all segments of the supply chain—producers, processors, independent grocers and, really importantly, the retailers—have come to the table, all acknowledging that there is a need for a code, that it is important, and exhibiting a willingness to work together to develop one.

I think that in and of itself is a historic step. Now we have all of those sectors working through some really difficult and, let's face it, challenging issues. If it weren't challenging, then we wouldn't have to sit down together to sort out a solution.

So yes, I'm optimistic. I think we can't afford to fail.

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

Thank you.

I have a second quick question.

I also asked earlier about your plan for foreign workers. Are you satisfied with the responses? Do you feel that things are moving quickly enough?

[Kathleen Sullivan]

We haven't received a response on our proposal. Until we actually have some sort of announcement from the federal government that they are prepared to put a program in place to allow us to bring in temporary foreign workers to assist with the labour crisis, then we don't have an answer. The problem will exist, and continue to exist, and continue to get worse until we have some sort of emergency foreign worker plan in place.

We've received good reception—

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Ms. Sullivan.

Mr. Perron, I gave you a little more time because it was necessary for the interpretation.

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

I appreciate that, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Okay.

Mr. MacGregor, you have the last two and half minutes.

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

Thank you so much, Chair.

Ms. Sullivan, just quickly, when I was asking Mr. Buy previously about transportation logistics and advancements in technology to reroute, you were nodding your head. Did you want to take a minute and add a little bit to that?

[Kathleen Sullivan]

When the B.C. crisis hit, Food and Beverage Canada did a lot of work with a round table to bring stakeholders together. I had a bird's-eye view into some of the challenges. What I found really interesting about that exchange was that we also have that issue domestically. One of the big questions that came up was around animal feed. I will give credit to the Animal Nutrition Association of Canada, because it created a conversation with food grade grain shippers to divert containers from the Port of Vancouver to resolve that need. This question extends not just internationally into our trade patterns but also to our domestic travel and transportation patterns. That's another application that we need to be thinking about.

One of the big challenges that we as industry have faced is...Bear in mind, we are critical infrastructure, but everybody in the food supply chain is privately run. We also have constraints, because of our ability to talk through the Competition Act. We have done a miraculous job of keeping the food system going. Additional tools to help us with that, like the one Serge described, can be nothing but a good thing.

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

Yes, I do remember that on Vancouver Island, Top Shelf Feeds took advantage of the redirection from the Port of Vancouver, so that was nice.

Very quickly, I haven't talked to the Canadian Cattlemen's Association. I do not have a question, but if you wanted to take the final 45 seconds to say anything that you might have missed out on that would help us in this study, please go ahead.

[Fawn Jackson]

I would re-emphasize our top budget recommendations. We really see foot and mouth disease as a very serious, and real threat that's sitting on our doorstep. We know what to do about it, and we need to prioritize it. We've also recommended an Indo-Pacific strategy that would help us deal with some of those future trade irritants where we see choppy waters ahead. Luck favours the prepared, and that's something that we're focused on.

Thanks so much for your time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Mr. MacGregor and Ms. Jackson.

On behalf of all my colleagues on the committee, I want to thank the witnesses, the interpreters, the entire technical team and the clerk.

Thank you, colleagues.

We look forward to continuing this study on Monday.

The meeting is adjourned.