Agriculture Committee on June 12th, 2023

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Mr. Davidson, I apologize. We have to leave it at that, unfortunately, but I appreciate it.

We'll now go to Mr. MacGregor.

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

I have a quick question, Mr. Davidson.

In the 42nd Parliament, we had an individual, Mr. Ronald Cuming, appear before the committee. He had worked with a draft of this law. Did you ever take a look at his draft? Is Bill C-280 in any way similar to what he had come up with? Are you familiar with the work he had done previously?

[Scot Davidson, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

Yes. My office spoke to Mr. Cuming on a couple of occasions.

I think that for this bill that was drafted and that's in front of you, Bill C-280, the first and foremost thing that people have to understand—I think we have a witness here who is going to be able to explain it, if you have those questions, a lot better than I can—is that, under their constitution, the U.S. is set up differently than Canada is. I think that's what Mr. Cuming was referring to: how legislation like this would work in Canada.

That's why we worked with Fred Webber and others to make sure this legislation respects provincial jurisdiction first and foremost. This was written respecting how Canada's Constitution and Canada's law in only federal jurisdiction.... Again, we did consult with him on that.

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

Thanks.

Maybe I'll end with a comment. When I was a teenager, I got to work at a local blueberry farm of about five acres. I was the foreman on that operation. You spend all this money getting to a couple of short weeks in July, when all hell is let loose. Anyone who has picked blueberries under the hot July sun can appreciate how quickly they can go bad on the bush, never mind on the store shelf. I'm grateful for the experience.

I also want to add my personal thanks to farmers in my region. I think what we have is an opportunity with this bill. This is a way for parliamentarians to all come together and set up a system that gives them some certainty, and that's kind of the theme word of the day.

Thank you, Mr. Davidson, for appearing.

[Scot Davidson, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

Thanks very much.

Thanks very much to the committee and the members.

Peter, let's get it done.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you very much to you too.

Over now to Mr. Lehoux, of the Conservative Party, for five minutes.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to my colleague. As the slogan goes, "everything's going to be all right".

Thank you very much, Mr. Davidson, for having introduced this truly important bill.

My question is about the financial side of things.

Do you think that the legislation will have a positive impact on the people you spoke with and that they will be able to obtain even more credit from their financial institutions?

If there are no guarantees, or if things are relatively unpredictable, financial institutions often become—excuse the expression—very skittish.

Do you think this bill will reassure bankers and give our farmers better access to credit?

[Scot Davidson, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

Yes—a hundred per cent. I think that when there's uncertainty in business.... Let's be honest. We have trying economic times right now, especially for farmers, whether it's increased input costs—again, alluding to corrugate—climate change or different banks being worried about different things with different farmers. I think this is one piece of legislation that would give certainty to creditors, to say, “You know what? That person's receivable is going to be backed by this deemed trust, that Bill C-280”, which we're going to come out with.

I think it is actually going to help the industry immensely. It's something that, again, fresh produce farmers have been waiting for. It's time for this committee to get it done—for sure.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you for your answer, Mr. Davidson.

You mentioned at the outset that farming was important and that it should be given more specific attention. That is precisely the purpose of Bill C‑280.

Do you think this bill will have an impact on small and medium-sized growers? The trend has often led to preferential treatment for the very big producers. Will this bill have a positive impact on small and medium-sized growers? Will it at least encourage some of them to start up again?

As my colleague mentioned earlier, many fruit and vegetable growers in every province have shifted to grain or other field crops. Do you think this bill could have a positive impact on a possible return to fruit and vegetable crops and enable smaller farms to successfully enter this market?

[Scot Davidson, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

Thanks for the question.

I think definitely throughout Canada it's going to allow our small farmers to possibly become medium-sized farmers and our medium-sized farmers to become bigger.

The world now is so global and so competitive that any little edge that we as legislators can give to our agriculture sector, our farmers here tonight, our fresh produce farmers, as a leg-up is much needed for the industry and much needed for the country.

I think this is one piece of legislation that is going to encourage growth in that sector.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you.

Similarly, as was pointed out earlier, small and medium-sized growers are often at the mercy of distributors, retailers, or whatever they might be called, which are more aggressive towards our growers.

Is Bill C‑280 really an important step forward? Could some improvements be made to ensure that it is?

[Scot Davidson, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

I think it will give someone like the farmer I spoke about earlier, Ken, that much-needed leg-up so he will say he's going to stay in that business and push forward instead of giving up.

Again, every little piece of legislation that we can pass in the House of Commons that's going to help any farmer, the little guy, to get a leg-up is going to help them, and I hope it will help a whole bunch of Kens.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

That's great. We will leave it at that.

We now have Mr. Drouin, who is going to lead off.

Colleagues, I'm going to take a little bit of time at the end to ask a few questions myself.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Davidson.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Go ahead, Mr. Drouin.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Davidson, it's great to get a second round of questioning in here. I will be short and sweet.

You previously addressed the supply chain, and the way you have addressed the bill, mentioning suppliers, potentially leaves the entire supply chain open to your bill. Are you in favour of that? I know the intention of the bill was to protect growers and fresh producers, but under the bill, that could actually be opened up so that potentially retailers would be protected.

Was that the intent of the bill, or would you support a friendly amendment to ensure we're truly protecting producers? This is just being left open to interpretation and, for instance, at the end of the day, if this goes to court, we want to make sure that producers are really well protected.

[Scot Davidson, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

That is a common-sense question. This was intended for financial protection for the producers, for the fresh fruit and vegetable growers. That is the intent of this bill. This is a robust bill, but if there is wording that needs to be looked at by the committee, I'm happy to look at that.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Mr. Chair, you will be happy to know that I'm already done.

I'll turn it over to you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

That's great.

Thank you, Mr. Davidson. Again, I support the concept of the intention of the bill, but I have just a few technical questions.

Do you have a copy of the bill in front of you? I appreciate, Mr. Davidson, that we will have a legal technical team in front of us, but this is just so I can be sure of your intent.

Proposed new paragraph 81.7(1)(a) seems to suggest that the supplier—and in this case, as Mr. Drouin was saying, your intention is that it be the grower, so we want to make sure that it's specifically the farmer—would have the ability to have, in their invoice, a clause that would say that, in the case of a bankruptcy, they would want to avail themselves of this protection, or that once the bankruptcy has happened they would have up to 30 days.

Is that your understanding of that provision?

[Scot Davidson, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

Where is that?

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

It's proposed section 81.7.

[Scot Davidson, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

It's on page number 1 of the bill, right under “Short title”. In proposed paragraph (a)....

[Scot Davidson, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

Yes, it's “the supplier has included in their invoice a notice”. Is it that part?

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Yes. Just so we're clear as the committee, is the intention there that, if I'm a farmer selling to a retailer, then I could put in my invoice a clause that would say, “in the event of bankruptcy, I intend to use this right that I have”? If it's not included in the invoice, then within 30 days of understanding that a bankruptcy could have happened, a farmer can apply and put in notice that they expect to be paid.

Is that your understanding of what that clause is?