Agriculture Committee on May 3rd, 2023

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

Thank you for that.

For my next question, I'll turn to you, Mr. Rosser, specifically for AAFC.

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting with the Deans Council for Agriculture, Food and Veterinary Medicine. You may be familiar with their submission for budget 2023. They also referred to One Health Canada.

In their submission, Mr. Rosser, they did note, and I will quote here:

Canada’s capacity to lead is, however, threatened by aging, out-dated and the lack of cutting-edge infrastructure.

They really hammered home on that point. If we really want to cement our place as an agricultural leader in the world, especially in tackling biosecurity threats, there is a need to invest.

How is AAFC approaching the problem that has so clearly been outlined by the deans?

[Tom Rosser]

Mr. Chair, I thank the member for the question.

I say we do maintain a very good relation and active engagement with the Deans Council. We have had a discussion with them over a period of years about their infrastructure needs. We're working with them to try to identify potential sources of federal funding that may be brought to bear on some priority projects.

Within our existing program envelope, we don't have a natural solution to the problem. We're certainly aware of it and we're happy to work with the individual institutions and the deans as a whole to see what options might exist within the broader federal system.

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

Dr. Ireland, on that same line of questioning, you've talked about the close working relationship you have with them. Of course, you depend on those schools to refill your ranks. Going forward, what are the demographics like at the CFIA? What is the number of people who are close to retirement, or do you have enough people coming through? Is the education supply adequate to maintain your needs?

[Dr. Mary Jane Ireland]

That's an excellent question.

At the agency, one of the things that I'm preoccupied with is the Canadian issue of a veterinary shortage. We have a shortage of veterinarians in Canada. That's not only a Canadian issue; it's actually a global issue. There's been an increase in pet ownership, and demands increased over the pandemic period.

We too at the agency are short of veterinarians, and we are trying to forge relationships and make sure that new veterinarians and veterinarians in school understand what we do and the exciting careers we have to offer them. We do a lot of work through summer student internship programs, and I try to work with the universities and the veterinary schools to make sure that we are top of mind for veterinarians when they graduate or if they want a career change.

There is a shortage also in private practice, and many of the schools, as the deans might have talked to you about, are increasing their enrolments to try to address that issue and are working with provinces for more provincially funded seats. However, we're all very seized with this issue because veterinarians are the key to animal health, environmental health and human health. We need a good supply of them and we're all working together.

The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association is also driving forward on making sure that we all understand best practices on keeping veterinarians, and we're working together internationally as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Ms. Ireland. Thank you, Mr. MacGregor.

Now we have Mr. Lehoux for up to five minutes.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank the witnesses for being here this afternoon.

My first question is for both the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Canada Border Services Agency.

At previous meetings, we heard someone state that one in 10 shipments of food entering Canada was selected for a tighter control procedure.

Is it still the case? I am thinking of the issue of chickens being passed off as spent hens, for example, as well as dairy products. I understand that you cannot control everything, but is the tighter procedure still used in one of 10 food shipments?

[Philippe Morel]

The number of inspections depends on the risk associated with the type of food. For higher-risk food, we inspect more than one in 10 shipments. If the risk is lower, we do fewer inspections. I do not know what food you are talking about exactly.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

I was talking about spent hens and chickens, among other things.

[Philippe Morel]

All right.

As far as the spent hens are concerned, that is about it.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

All right.

Canadian producers are being asked to meet fairly strict environmental and other standards, and that is fine. However, we should make sure that we enforce those standards.

This brings me to the issue of reciprocity of standards. There may be a lot of work to do on that side. Is this a matter for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Canada Border Services Agency, or the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food? This is something that should be seriously looked at, because there are still a lot of customs posts between Canada and its southern neighbour.

Dr. Ireland, you mentioned that there is a shortage of veterinarians. Are there other resource shortages? Can we define the problem precisely so that we can find a solution quickly? Indeed, this has a direct impact on Canadian producers.

[Tom Rosser]

Mr. Chair, we have an ongoing dialogue with the various sectors where we have concerns, such is the case for spent hens.

In the dairy sector, for example, we are working with the Border Services Agency as well as our colleagues at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. In terms of spent hens, we have been working for several years with the Border Services Agency to do better testing and inspections, and we have seen a significant drop in the volume of imports of spent hens, over the last few years.

[Philippe Morel]

As far as reciprocity of standards is concerned, I would add that we demand the same quality for imported food as we do for food produced in Canada. So there is no difference. The same risk models are being used. However, the risk models may vary depending on the country of origin. This is also part of the risk analysis that is done for the import, but the requirements for the final product are the same.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

I agree with you. Certainly, the same requirements apply when food enters the country, but there are probably differences in how it is produced, and perhaps more rigorous work needs to be done about the processes.

As can be seen on their website, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency currently has a plan related to a specific foot-and-mouth disease risk.

Are there any other response plans that you are considering implementing or that are ready to be implemented? What is the status of these plans?

[Dr. Mary Jane Ireland]

Thank you very much for the question.

We do in fact have a hazard-specific plan or a response plan for foot-and-mouth disease should we have an incursion. We are currently working with Animal Health Canada to enhance and consider broader vaccination should we have an incursion of FMD. Working with Animal Health Canada means working with provinces and industry associations to think about how we would use a vaccine if we needed to. That also requires an extensive amount of collaboration with industry. They are an important consideration, and their views are important in that regard.

The FMD vaccine, as I mentioned, would only be used if we had an incursion. How we use it, when we use it and where we use it depends on many factors: Is it a big outbreak? Is it a small outbreak? Where is it? How many animals are involved? These are all decisions around FMD that we will be working with Animal Health Canada on as we move forward.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you very much, Dr. Ireland and Mr. Lehoux.

Ms. Valdez, you now have the floor for five minutes.

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for joining us today.

This question is for all of you.

If disease were to strike any part of our agriculture tomorrow, can you share with us what your respective processes would be?

I'll start with you, Mr. Hoag.

[Shawn Hoag]

Thank you for the question.

From a border perspective, the way we respond is that all importers must provide information on the goods prior to their arrival in Canada. They are then risk-assessed, and we may issue targets that interdict shipments at the border to prevent them from coming into the country. I think that follows up to the other member's question about what we do at the border.

It's a layered approach. Our officers then have the authority to examine specific shipments and detain those shipments until the CFIA or Agriculture Canada provide us with direction to release them. Were there to be an outbreak and CFIA advised us to hold goods at the border, we would hold them there until we received further direction to either release them into the economy or to send them for destruction.

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Thank you.

Dr. Ireland or Mr. Morel, would you comment?

[Philippe Morel]

For CFIA, if there's disease or something biosecurity-related, the first thing we will do is make sure the situation is as contained as possible. For example, if it's a disease, we'll send samples to a laboratory to get results

After that, we put in place what needs to be done to make sure in the case of an animal disease or a plant disease, for example, that the food or the animals don't move from a certain zone, that there are movement controls in place and that we restrict to the maximum the risk of spreading any disease that is present. We then also inform our international partners about the risk we have and what mitigation measures we have in place to control and measure it.

[Tom Rosser]

Mr. Chair, I'd add quickly, from Agriculture Canada's perspective, that we have an emergency management team and plans, including event-specific plans. In the case of African swine fever, for example, we have engaged in a level of planning and preparation that I think is unprecedented when it comes to previous outbreaks of animal diseases.

As I believe I may have mentioned in my opening testimony, later this week we are going to simulate a response to a detection of African swine fever in Canada, with senior representatives of provincial governments and industry joining us to go through that exercise.

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Thank you so much.

I'll direct my questions to Mr. Hoag.

What new technologies or initiatives is the CBSA exploring to improve biosecurity, especially with the emergence of all the AI technology?

[Shawn Hoag]

We use a range of technologies. We're exploring how to gather data better to make sure that importers are sending us the right data. It's system we use called the single window initiative, which allows us to gather all of the import data so that it can then be reviewed by the CFIA prior to the goods coming into the country.

We have also deployed an increased number of X-ray machines in airports to allow us to review goods, specifically traveller baggage coming into the country. We have deployed an increased number of detector dog teams. In fact, you may have seen them when you move internationally through the airports. They still remain one of our best tools for detecting food, plant and animal goods coming in with either travellers or commercial goods, or through the postal system or the courier system. Thank you.

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Thank you. I met one of those dogs at one of our recent visits to the CBSA in Toronto.

What are some of the key challenges in balancing biosecurity measures with trade facilitation—for example, with trading to the U.S.?

[Shawn Hoag]

A constant top-of-mind challenge for the agency is ensuring our supply chains continue to remain open and flow in a fluid manner while also delivering on our mandate to protect the health, safety and security of Canadians.

We do that through this layered approach by making sure that we get the data for goods that are coming in or goods that require permits to leave the country so that we can review the data and then take action to examine goods when required. It's not possible, nor would it be in the interest of supply chain fluidity, for us to examine everything coming in or going out.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you very much, Mr. Hoag and Mrs. Valdez.

Now we have Mr. Perron for two and a half minutes, please.