Agriculture Committee on May 17th, 2023

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Barlow]

Colleagues, we have an issue with Ms. Collins' sound. I'm not sure if it's her headset. We're going to go ahead and start, but when it comes to Ms. Collins' turn, we'll have it resolved, hopefully, and the NDP will be able to get their slot.

For the sake of time, we'll get started. Hopefully, we'll have Ms. Collins' sound issues resolved when we get to her spot.

We've had introductions. We know most of our guests.

Thank you very much to the officials for sticking around and providing your time this afternoon.

We'll get right to the rounds of questions.

We'll be starting with the Conservatives and Mr. Epp for six minutes, please.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the officials for being here.

How many farms are affected by the underutilized housing tax?

[Stefanie Beck, Deputy Minister, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Unless one of my colleagues knows, I'll have to say that we don't know. We could get back to you.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Okay. Can I ask that you table that with the committee?

[Stefanie Beck]

Yes, we will do that.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

On the exemptions for that tax, the fines of $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for entities have been exempted for a six-month period. Will the corporations, the entities, be exempted completely from this tax after that?

[Stefanie Beck]

I'll have to look into the program for you and get back to you.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

The farms are in a rural area. It's designed to address housing prices, particularly in our urban centres. Can you ask how applying this tax to our rural areas would impact...? Is this not collateral damage or unintended damage?

[Stefanie Beck]

Rural housing of course is a larger matter for our farmers, who are looking for temporary foreign workers to come in and assist in running their farms, so it's certainly a matter of great importance.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Thank you.

The minister supported Bill C-280 today. That was good to see. In the past she has provided information that there are only negligible losses in the fresh market sector, and I just had a bankruptcy in my region that affected a producer to the tune of $1 million.

May I ask to what extent the banking sector has lobbied AAFC and/or the minister regarding Bill C-280?

[Stefanie Beck]

I can't speak for the minister, but I can tell you for certain that the banking sector has not lobbied me since my time here in the department. Perhaps, though, since the lead on that is our colleagues at the finance department, it's more likely that any discussions would have been had there.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

That's exactly where I was going with my next question.

May I ask what representations AAFC has made to Finance around the implementation of Bill C-280 once it's passed and, in particular, the speed it can happen at and how quickly we can lobby the U.S. for recovery for our Canadian sellers under PACA?

[Stefanie Beck]

It does need to continue through the parliamentary process. I think that depends more on how fast that process is before we can put in place the necessary actions.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Thank you.

I'm going to switch over to our CFIA folks.

Is the chief redress officer still operational?

[Philippe Morel]

No. The position does not exist anymore.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

The position does not exist. Do you know when it was eliminated?

[Philippe Morel]

No. I don't have that information with me.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Can you table with this committee how many complaints were received since 2015, while that office was in operation, how they were broken down by subject matter and by province, and the outcomes of those complaints?

[Philippe Morel]

What we have right now is a complaints and appeals office that takes complaints from regulated...or even from citizens, and this office still exists. We receive some complaints/questions and even congratulations on our services or actions. What information would you like to have?

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

It's just exactly what came in from the provinces and exactly what the outcomes were of those complaints.

Thank you.

[Philippe Morel]

I don't have that with me, but we can provide that.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

You can table it with the committee. Thank you very much.

The minister is co-chairing the grocery code of conduct committee. I have two questions here.

First, can you provide the timelines for when it's estimated that it's going to be completed?

Second, what advice did the department provide the minister from the U.K. and Australia, two of our allies that have gone down this road? On their failed initial attempts, what advice was given to the minister?

[Stefanie Beck]

My understanding is that they are in fact very near the end of the discussions on the code of conduct. We are very hopeful that it will be implemented shortly. I believe the likely time frame is over the summer.

What we expect to see then is full onboarding by all the big companies in Canada, the grocery stores in Canada, and that is where we will be able to tell how well this is working. I'd like to note that we have the full support of all the provincial and territorial governments as well, and the grocery companies we have been meeting with have assured us that they are going to be part of it.

Do you want me to answer the second part?

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Yes, please.

[Stefanie Beck]

It's a very good point, because we have indeed consulted with our colleagues in the United Kingdom and Australia and have followed closely what worked for them. It's very useful learning, including that it is not a quick process. We can put in a first round. How well does that work? Is tweaking required? Is it necessary to put in more, let's call them, forceful measures? That is what they ended up doing.