Agriculture Committee on May 17th, 2023

[Leah Taylor Roy, Liberal, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Bibeau and all of the department officials, for being here today. Thank you for the hard work you're doing at the ministry to support our agricultural sector and to move toward more sustainable agriculture as well.

I want to talk about another area where I think there's potential for growth, which is the plant-based food market.

I recently met with World Animal Protection and a young woman, Nika Moeini, who works with Youth Climate Save. She's also an ambassador for the Plant Based Treaty, which advocates for a transition to sustainable agriculture.

Plant-based food is an area where there's a lot of potential for growth. It's also an area where we can build on the incredible sustainability work that's being done through our agriculture sector, because a transition to the consumption of more plant-based foods has the potential to close the gap in reaching the climate targets that we currently have in our emissions reduction plan. It's about nine megatons. It's quite impressive, when you look out to 2030.

I'm wondering what the government is doing and what the department is doing to support the growth of that plant-based food sector, which I believe is a huge export market for our agriculture community as well.

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

I think we have huge potential. We are already positioning Canada as a leader in terms of innovation in plant-based food. With one of our superclusters, with Protein Industries Canada, we have already invested $353 million. I have had the opportunity to visit a certain number of these projects that are being rolled out from the supercluster and the PIC program. It is just amazing what is developing in there. I'm talking about food, directly around food, but also the residue, if I can call it that, of certain transformations that are developing into alternative fertilizer as well, organic fertilizer. It's not only around food. The whole supply chain, the whole sector, is extremely promising.

We're talking about 52 projects with the industry. With our investment, but with the private sector investment as well, we're talking about $478 million involving 430 organizations and 633 products already, since 2017 alone. This is a very, very exciting sector that is developing. I think we're very well positioned to be a world leader in this sector.

[Leah Taylor Roy, Liberal, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you so much. That is exciting.

I'm wondering what role the government can play here too. We have the new Canada food guide, which, as you know, has really emphasized plant-based foods and consuming more of those. Hopefully, we're going to have the school lunch program introduced soon. Do you see a greater opportunity for us to try to move consumption in that direction?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

I will leave this analysis to our colleagues from the Department of Health. I think there will always be space for animal and plant protein, but with a growing world population, we have to be open to innovation. Everything around plant protein is extremely promising.

[Leah Taylor Roy, Liberal, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Yes. I agree. I think there's always going to be the demand for animal protein as well, but when you look at the world hunger situation, the amount of water used and the amount of other inputs used to create animal protein, I think having the balance between both will allow us to address a lot of things—environmental sustainability, world hunger and our climate targets. I very much appreciate the work you're doing on that.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

You still have a little time remaining. You have 90 seconds.

[Leah Taylor Roy, Liberal, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

That's fantastic. I'll ask another question.

I'm also wondering about this in the numbers. The on-farm climate action stream has of course a great deal of money allocated, more than $87 million. Are there any new directions coming out over the next year in this program, or is there still a lot of pent-up demand for that program in terms of the initiatives under way?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

We launched a program a year and a half ago, more or less, mainly for last summer and this summer. We have 12 partners, I would call them, or program managers all across the country who are rolling out this program, mainly for cover cropping, rotational grazing and better management of nitrogen fertilizer. We will analyze the results and the impacts. We will try to measure the impacts on emission reductions, because this is what we are looking for, and making our farms more resilient, of course.

Then we will launch the second call for proposals or go for a second phase for the summer of 2024. We might realign some different things, but I can't tell yet. We have to look at the results first.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you very much.

We now go to Mr. Perron for six minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, I'd like to thank you and the other witnesses for being with us today.

I have a lot of questions, so I will try to be brief.

As you know, we did a study on poultry imports from Ukraine. Officials from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, CFIA, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada told us earlier this year that the first 10 poultry shipments from every establishment would undergo full inspection.

Can you tell us whether CFIA's inspections revealed any substances that are banned in Canada?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

I'm going to ask Mr. Morel to provide more information on that.

[Philippe Morel, Vice-President, Operations, Canadian Food Inspection Agency]

Since the tariffs were reduced, we've received 24 containers of poultry from Ukraine, 11 of which were fully tested. The testing is complex and can take up to a month to complete.

As you mentioned, Mr. Perron, the first 10 shipments are undergoing a comprehensive inspection. Of the lots received, three portions were found to be non-compliant and had to be destroyed or shipped back out of the country. The rest, however, were found to be compliant. I should point out that the samples were very detailed, as per the requirements and our policy for the first 10 shipments.

If the poultry from a given establishment is found not to comply with Canadian standards, we increase the number of shipments we test to 15, and that testing is just as rigorous.

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

Thank you.

That was one of the things we had expressed concerns over. We sent the minister a letter about it, including our recommendation not to renew the order.

June 9 is approaching fast, Minister.

Can you tell us what you plan to do about the order? Of course, I'm talking about supply-managed sectors.

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Yes, I realize that you're talking about supply-managed sectors. As you know, we strongly condemn Russia's attack against Ukraine, so we want to impose whatever sanctions we can. You also know what a staunch defender of supply management I am, and I will continue to keep a very close eye on this issue.

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

My understanding is that a decision hasn't been made yet.

Is that correct?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

I'm not the one who makes that decision, as you know. The decision hasn't been made yet.

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

Certainly, we will continue to press for the decision that was recommended by the committee. Thank you.

In budget 2023, the government announced that it would establish the dairy innovation and investment fund. That's great, but we still don't have any details. We don't know what the amounts are or when the fund will be rolled out.

Can you give us any information on that? When will the funding be available? Processors are eager to apply.

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

A total of $333 million has been earmarked for the sector. We are actually in talks with dairy farmers and processors. The purpose of the program is to create new market opportunities that leverage the surplus of non-fat dairy solids. We want to promote innovation in that area to see what's possible.

In fact, I recently visited a company in Quebec City that's using non-fat dairy solid surpluses to produce bioplastics. It's a market that holds tremendous potential. The company representatives even said they didn't think Canada's surplus was big enough to meet their demand, so there's incredible potential with that market and others.

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

When will the program be rolled out?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

It's always tricky to give an exact date, as you know. I think we can reasonably expect the program to launch in the fall. That's an approximate time frame, because it's important to note that we are still in talks. I don't want to set a date that's unrealistic. We have to work with members of the industry on designing the program.

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

I'm sure you can understand that I would spend a lot more time on the subject, but I have to move on.

The members of the Union des producteurs agricoles called on the government for help a while ago. I asked you about it at the time, in the House. I sensed that you were open to the idea, but perhaps I'm just an optimist. You tell me.

Extending the deadline for repaying the Canada emergency business account loans could prove helpful from a cash flow standpoint. On May 11, the Quebec government took action, announcing $100 million to help with loan interest for three years, among other things.

Agriculture is an area of shared jurisdiction, and my feeling is that you would like to help out. Do you plan to help Quebec in its efforts to provide more support to our farmers, if only providing 60% of funding? That's common practice with business risk management programs, for instance.

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Cost-shared programs fall under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership. Funding is available in that the measure is consistent with the direction we've agreed on.

I spoke with Mr. Lamontagne, the Quebec Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, just yesterday, and I've had that same discussion with all of my provincial counterparts. I could hardly give Quebec a 60% share of funding without doing the same across the country.

Right now, we are assessing where help is needed most and what those needs look like countrywide. We are figuring out whether we can provide support through the business risk management programs or under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership. We are also considering whether other options are available.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you very much, Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Perron.

We now go to Mr. MacGregor for six minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Welcome back, Minister. To you and to all your officials, thank you for joining us today.

I also want to stay on the subject of supply management. My colleague Monsieur Perron asked about Ukraine. I want to ask about future trade deals. India, of course, looms large right now. India has indicated very publicly through its high commissioner to Canada that agriculture is going to be a big thing.

Now, at the same time, Parliament is in the middle of debating a private member's bill, Bill C-282, which is going to put in force and effect a legislative firewall on the ability of the Department of Foreign Affairs to negotiate on tariff rate quotas. I think that's there because Parliament's trust, at least on the opposition side, was broken three times by your government, if I'm speaking frankly, through three successive trade deals. Yes, you can talk about the compensation, but on that third pillar of supply management—import controls—some things were given away there.

Minister, Bill C-282 still has a little bit of a journey ahead of it. It does need to go through the Senate before it receives royal assent, and you have that legislative constraint in place. In the meantime, if the trade deal with the Indo-Pacific region, with India specifically, marches ahead at a pretty rapid pace, can we have your assurance that supply management is not going to be on the table and that you're not going to take advantage of the time between now and when Bill C-282 comes into force and effect?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

First I want to say that our commitment was to protect the system and to compensate, and we've done what we said. The compensation has all been announced.

Now, our commitment is different. Our commitment is not to allow any additional share in any other trade agreements. I can assure you that supply-managed products will not be on the table in any way in our discussions with India.