Agriculture Committee on May 8th, 2023

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lévis—Lotbinière, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My question is for the representatives of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

I would like to tell you that pork production is very strong in my region. These producers are my cousins, my neighbours, my friends. They are very worried right now, and they need more than hope. They need everyone in the industry, everyone, to step up to the plate.

Olymel said they need 1,200 temporary foreign workers. Every time the arrival of temporary foreign workers at Olymel is delayed, a farm dies. These are human tragedies. We are talking about people who have dedicated their lives to their business and who are losing $50 per hog right now. Imagine the losses for farms that produce 100 to 200 hogs per week. That's $5,000 to $10,000 a week. Olymel needs these workers to add value to its meat.

Has the government given a clear signal to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to speed up the processing of files so that Olymel can work and add value to this meat as quickly as possible?

[Tal Elharrar]

Thank you for the question.

What I will say, first and foremost, is that currently the processing time for temporary foreign workers to come in from overseas is 24 days. When there is a need for temporary foreign workers and they apply to come in, that's how long it takes. That is down from about 67 days this past summer, July 2022.

We have already increased quite dramatically—

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lévis—Lotbinière, QC]

We see cases of foreign workers almost every day in our constituency offices. It doesn't take days to process their case, it takes months, even years in some cases.

I am asking the government to proceed as quickly as possible and provide Olymel with all the foreign workers it needs immediately. This will not cost Canadian society a lot of money, and it will allow Olymel to get out of the woods, slaughter its hogs, process its meat and save farms.

In Quebec, 1,000 farms are affected. For Quebec, pork exports represent more money than the export of electricity from Hydro-Québec.

Have you thought about all the regional economies that are going to collapse? It's huge. I want Olymel to be able to have foreign workers within two months, at most. Issue permits. Do your job, please.

My next question is for the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada representative.

I have been told that pork protein is in demand globally and that there is a market opportunity.

Are there any interesting opportunities in the future for pork protein, in the short, medium and long term?

[Donald Boucher]

Thank you very much for the question.

When we look at the consumption profiles, even if only here in Canada, we see that there is a repositioning of meat, given the arrival of plant proteins on the market. The demand remains strong, but there is still a migration towards other types of proteins.

That said, the middle class is growing in some emerging markets, and we think there is still a positive outlook for animal protein in the future.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

You only have five seconds left, Mr. Gourde.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lévis—Lotbinière, QC]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

I'd like to remind all members of the committee to be respectful of all witnesses. I understand that this issue is very important to everyone, but let's be respectful, please.

Ms. Valdez, you have the floor for four minutes.

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

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to our witnesses who have joined us today.

I come from a family of pork farmers, so I do empathize with the impacts that the closing of the Olymel processing plant in Vallée-Jonction will have for the workers and families in particular and, of course, the pork industry as a whole.

Through you, Mr. Chair, I'll direct my questions to Mr. Boucher.

Can you share what steps the department took to address the situation? Can you share if the agri-food pilot was leveraged in this case?

[Donald Boucher]

I'm not sure I got the last part of the question, but definitely, in terms of AAFC's actions, as I mentioned during my opening remarks, the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food supports the pork industry in many ways, including through our programming on business risk management.

We have export development and market access capability. We know that the pork industry is very much export-oriented, with 70% of the meat produced being exported. We are looking at a variety of programming through our Canadian agricultural partnership and the new version, the sustainable Canadian agricultural partnership, that looks into innovation and competitiveness issues, but I think, again, this is trying to improve the competitiveness of the industry as a whole as opposed to a single issue such as this one.

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

Thank you.

Are you able to share how the special mediator was assigned to facilitate a negotiation between the company and its workers?

[Donald Boucher]

Thank you very much for the question. I think this was done by the Province of Quebec, the provincial government, so I would not be able to comment on this. I'm sorry.

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

No problem.

I'll direct my next question to the Department of Citizenship and Immigration.

You mentioned several programs in your opening that are offered by the department. Are there any plans to either expand or modify these programs in light of the closure?

[Dr. Ian Gillespie]

There is none that I'm aware of. I think, as you can appreciate, the temporary foreign worker programming in Canada is quite broad. There are a number of pathways, especially under the temporary foreign worker program. Any employer is, in short, able to apply for and seek authorization to hire temporary foreign workers. Under the international mobility program, as well, there are a number of pathways for employers to hire temporary foreign workers under employer-specific work permits, but also for foreign nationals to obtain open work permits.

Across the whole suite of these programs, it already covers lots of different pathways.

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

Thank you.

I think this question is for either you or Ms. David. Can you share some details on the support services that will be available to workers impacted, whether that's through retraining programs or transition services?

[Jacinthe David]

Just to clarify, are you thinking about the temporary foreign workers themselves or the workers who are in Vallée-Jonction, the locals?

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

It's the locals.

[Jacinthe David]

Service Canada, I know, has been in touch with the company to make sure that we could offer services to the impacted individuals, such as employment insurance, etc. I know there was a first contact made.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Savard-Tremblay, you have the floor for two minutes.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

I would simply like to pick up my conversation from earlier with Mr. Beauchamp and Mr. Banville, where we left off.

It's about the obsolescence of the facilities. I imagine that many plants are at risk of being relocated or having to close. I'm not necessarily talking about Olymel, but you can tell me what it's like for you. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that these options have also been mentioned with respect to the plant we're talking about today.

Do you think the federal government should invest in modernizing food processing facilities?

[Paul Beauchamp]

I think it would be useful to support the hog sector and other food sectors. We have to find a balance and not neglect the production sector. I know that we are already making significant efforts in that direction.

We must also support our producers and our processing activities, because without producers, there is no processing. There is no such thing as a producer without a plant. In the long term, we must consider the value chain and support both the farm and the processing sector.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Mr. Banville, do you have anything to add in this regard?

Do you think the federal government should invest in upgrading facilities?

[Louis Banville]

Thank you for the question, sir.

I think that my colleague Mr. Beauchamp has answered the question well in terms of the technological aspects.

For my part, I would like to reiterate the fact that, despite Olymel's efforts to hire staff from the regions, which have produced some results, the issue of foreign workers will remain.

We have always taken the same direction, namely to work with foreign workers according to a long-term vision, whether in Vallée-Jonction or elsewhere. We have chosen French-speaking foreign workers to allow their integration, which has obviously worked well in Beauce. We do this throughout Quebec. We also help foreign workers to obtain their permanent residence. The processing time, which MP Gourde mentioned, is also important once these people have arrived in Canada.

Supporting workers in their efforts to obtain permanent residency is an important aspect, because at the end of the day, these people live in the region, they have an income of about $60,000 per year, they buy houses, they consume, they pay taxes and they become full citizens. We've always worked with that long-term vision with temporary foreign workers.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you very much, Mr. Banville.

Thank you very much, Mr. Savard-Tremblay.

Mr. MacGregor, you have the floor for two minutes.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Beauchamp, I think you've touched on this in an exchange with other colleagues. Looking at the plant in question in Vallée-Jonction, there's a very significant cluster of primary producers of pork farms in the region. They of course now have a timeline to adapt to a plant closure. I know this plant was taking hogs from as far away as Ontario. It's not all regionally based and locally produced pork.

With that being said, primary producers have to adapt to a significant closure. How does Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, in your view, step in to work with these primary producers when one of your plants closes? Ultimately our committee wants to address a letter to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. They may have to deal with increased transportation costs. Some of them may have to go into other areas of farming because there's a surplus. Can you just expand on that a little bit more?

[Paul Beauchamp]

I wouldn't want to speak for the government in terms of the strategic choices it will have to make. That being said, it is certain that offering support to hog producers is essential. They are in a crisis, just as we are. However, if we don't maintain the production base of the processing plants, it won't do much.

We have made a strategic choice to reposition ourselves. We have to think about the producers, both in Ontario and in Quebec — I'm going to preach a little more for Quebec, because it's my region. I think it's important. How can we support them in the short term? We've negotiated a marketing agreement with the breeders in Quebec, where we've agreed to extend the operating time to allow for a better transition. However, it's far from perfect. Support is needed. Producers are going to face huge costs because the closure date will not be properly aligned with the transition plan that producers in Quebec have agreed to.

They will need support until the plan is fully implemented, whether it is for transportation or farm income, which has already been alluded to. The cost of grain is exorbitant and interest rates have skyrocketed. We are short of cash, especially since producers in Quebec have agreed to support Quebec processors by accepting a price cut to help them get back on track. It's not just Olymel that needs support, but really the whole industry.