Thank you very much.
Good afternoon, everyone.
My name is Tim Klompmaker. I am the chair of Chicken Farmers of Canada. I operate my chicken farm in Norwood, Ontario, with my family.
As one of Canada's 2,900 chicken farmers, I usually speak about agriculture, but as you can appreciate, I am not an expert in geopolitics. I condemn the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and I support that Canada is helping Ukraine. Our country cannot be inactive against this aggression.
We appreciate appearing today regarding the Ukraine goods remission order.
Chicken Farmers of Canada was never consulted on the government's decision to implement this order. When we first learned of it, we reviewed the list of eligible countries that export meat products into Canada, and noted that Ukraine was not included. As such, it was clear, at that time, that the remission order would not be applicable to the Canadian chicken sector.
In mid-July, we learned that a CFIA audit of the Ukraine meat inspection system and the animal health controls governing the production of poultry meat products took place in 2018-19. As indicated in the CFIA's testimony to this committee on Monday, no further activity has taken place between the conclusion of that audit and its recent work to develop the export certificates that would permit the export of Ukrainian meat to Canada. Given the past few years of uncertainty related to the global pandemic, and now seeing that there's a war in Ukraine, this urgent desire to issue the export certificates, despite the risks associated with Ukraine's critical infrastructure, is both questionable and concerning.
Food safety is a top priority for Canadians and for Canadian chicken farmers. Our on-farm food safety program enforces the highest food safety standards. It is third party-audited, and 100% of our farmers are certified. Although we do not know exactly the specific conditions of the infrastructure and the resources available within Ukraine, the daily news on the war provides us with reasons to be concerned about the present performance of their animal health and meat inspection practices, as well as the capacity of CFIA to verify whether these practices are as they were during the 2019 audit. It is reasonable to expect that the situation has changed since 2019.
In a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report on the impact of the war, from July 2022, it was noted that Ukrainian “livestock producers lack physical and economic access to animal health supplies, including commercial veterinary drugs, animal feed and feed additives.” Such a statement from the FAO about the state of animal health and welfare, as well as the capacity of meat-processing and meat inspections systems in Ukraine, concerns us.
It is our understanding that our largest trading partner, the United States, which conducted its audits of the Ukraine poultry and meat system alongside CFIA inspectors, has delayed its decision regarding Ukraine's export permit until the war is over and it can reassess the state of Ukraine's food safety infrastructure.
We have also noticed that no cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza have been reported from Ukraine since January 2022. Of course, we want to hear that countries are, indeed, free of avian influenza. However, given that most countries neighbouring Ukraine have made frequent and recent reports of avian influenza, we see good reason to question this. When Russia, Poland and other surrounding countries are facing cases of avian influenza, it leads us to further question the current animal disease surveillance and reporting system in Ukraine. As Canadian chicken farmers are dealing with the stress of ongoing cases of AI, and the associated movement and trade restrictions based on the World Organisation for Animal Health requirements, we strongly want to ensure a level playing field and prevent any further AI spread.
We understand the need to support Ukraine, but we want to ensure that Canada's efforts do not undermine the food safety of Canadians and the credibility of CFIA.
The reports on the destruction of infrastructure such as electricity and water supply—so critical to animal and food safety—and the cases of avian influenza reported surrounding Ukraine lead us to believe that their industry is not operating as it did during the 2019 CFIA audit. In addition, the recent push from CFIA to finalize export certificates without any follow-up visits to the country, given the significant losses to their infrastructure to assess these systems, seems like an unusual practice.
We thank the committee for allowing us the opportunity to present our views on the Ukraine goods remission order. We once again urge the Government of Canada to refrain from issuing the export certificates until a comprehensive intelligence program is put in place to monitor the ongoing integrity of Ukraine’s veterinary and critical infrastructure. We sincerely hope that Canada will continue to help Ukraine without putting the food security of Canadians and the reputation of our food import system at risk.
Thank you.
