Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, all. I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to appear before the standing committee to provide the perspectives of Canadian pork producers on the agriculture and agri-food supply chain.
My name is Rick Bergmann. I'm a producer from Manitoba and the chair of the Canadian Pork Council.
Producers work hard every day to produce high-quality, safe, affordable protein that is in demand in Canada and around the world. We export almost 70% of production in the form of live animals to the U.S. and meat worldwide. These exports to more than 90 countries exceeded over $5 billion last year and contributed significantly to the health of rural communities and the broader Canadian economy.
We need to talk about the problems this morning. For numerous years, as has been mentioned already, we have talked about a labour shortage. It is now critical. The processing facilities are shutting down due to the labour shortage, forcing producers to find other options, requiring longer distances to travel and, of course, higher costs. I believe this is actually the straw that breaks the camel's back forcing some of them to leave the sector.
We have to defend that. We're dealing with a shortage of trained livestock drivers, and the protests, of course, at border crossings can easily lead to producers needing to euthanize animals due to animal welfare concerns. As of last Friday, 80 loads, including market hogs, culled sows, early weans and feeder pigs have been cancelled directly due to border issues. It is fair to say that those numbers have no doubt increased over the weekend. These backed-up loads are in addition to the estimated 180,000 hogs backed up in Quebec and Ontario because of labour issues that have already been mentioned.
Capacity for holding culled sows, market hogs, and isoweans will get tighter across Canada within the next week to 10 days. The barns are not built to retain livestock that should already be shipped. All this results in overcrowding, and it is not clear how we'll get through the backlog if we encounter more delays.
What we do know is that the Government of Canada's additional vaccination rules, announced on December 7 for employees of all federally regulated workplaces, will be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Our traceability records show that we use approximately 700 trucks per month to move hogs interprovincially, and the implementation of that rule will set us up for guaranteed failure.
The reality is that we're experiencing a significant shortage of trucks and trailers to haul hogs across Canada, and the situation is worse than publicly stated. Our inquiries indicate the livestock trucking industry has a lower vaccination rate than the public average. According to the latest survey information we have, the industry has a vaccination rate of 72%.
Of course, drought conditions caused about half a crop in western Canada to fail this last year, and has increased demand and eliminated local feed supplies. We're increasingly relying on importing feed ingredients from the U.S., paying approximately 30% to 40% more for the feed, and a freight increase of about 50%. What's even more disappointing is that the AAFC recovery program has been made available to almost every other animal in agriculture that needed to feed during the drought conditions, except for pork producers. So before we can focus on the future, we need to fixate on the issues right in front of us.
It is high time for us to advance a solution. The Government of Canada needs to cut the time it takes to process temporary foreign workers applications. The 8 to 12 month wait time is eroding and will continue to erode the strengths of our sector. We needed those employees yesterday. We need a more sustainable way of managing the COVID pandemic.
Another factor impacting the supply chain interruption is slowdowns at Canadian ports. It is important to state that no time sensitive Canadian agricultural export should ever be disrupted, especially perishable meat products. We are suggesting that the perishable and time sensitive commodities, such as meat, be added to the exemption from the labour disruptions under section 87.7 of the Canadian Labour Code.
In closing, the pork industry supply chain operates on a structured very just-in-time delivery system for the movement of live animals, animal feeds, and pork shipments across Canada and into the U.S. Any disruptions mentioned today cause major issues.
Supply chain delays impact the economy, producers' mental health and, potentially, the health and welfare of the animals we're entrusted to take care of. Our industry really can't afford to sustain any more delays.
Thank you.