Agriculture Committee on Feb. 28th, 2022

[Chris Davison]

I'll just quickly build, picking up on what Steve said. As I said off the top, our biggest challenge as an industry is meeting demand. Anything we can do in terms of supply chain infrastructure that will help facilitate that, whether to support domestic movement in domestic markets or international markets, is extremely welcome to us. We've seen significant investments, such as the one you've alluded to, by our members and others in that space.

As I commented in my opening remarks, we also have indications in the last 12 months or so of significantly expanded crush and processing capacity, in terms of announcements that have been made, linked to signals around the biofuels market. We want to make sure those announcements are converted to shovels in the ground, so that we continue to do a good job in meeting the demand we're seeing both offshore and here in North America.

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

Yes. I'm excited for the growth that the canola business will experience. In my business, I've used many a canola jug, so I appreciate your work there.

Do you have any projections on any volumes or how this terminal opening will increase sales?

[Chris Davison]

I won't speak to the terminal specifically, unless my colleagues have that. I will tell of the general announcements that I just referred to, of the five facilities that will increase our capacity by about 50% if they all come to fruition over the period of time from when shovels are in the ground until we have new operational facilities up and running. That's a significant increase in capacity.

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

Thank you.

In the canola supply chain, are there any issues or causes for concern? Where are the specific bottlenecks? Can you narrow in on those?

[Chris Davison]

That's a broad question. There are a few things that we would point out.

On the one front, I commented off the top on regulation. Regulation is key, obviously. If we have regulation that's enabling, that's very positive. However, if we have regulation that's acting as a barrier to innovation and access to technology, that has an impact on the entire value chain.

When I speak of that, I refer to it both domestically and internationally. Internationally, if we have diverging regulatory frameworks in different key markets, it has the potential to create significant market access challenge, which if they come to fruition, work backwards through our supply chain and ultimately inhibit or restrict markets for canola farmers and the rest of the value chain. That really links to the fact that reliable access to markets is critical, given what both Dave and I said off the top, that 90% of our canola production today is exported.

We need a positive trade environment that is free of tariff and non-tariff barriers. We have a plan to do that. We work with you and others, government and industry stakeholders, to achieve that through a number of different levers. It's critically important.

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

Thank you.

I have a quick question about shipping. If things are shipped in bulk, does that reduce supply chain disruptions?

[Steve Pratte]

We currently operate what we typically refer to as a bulk system. Literally, the railcars are loaded and many different trains meet the same ship and fill it. When it comes to the bulk system, on the immediate or the long-term horizon, there is no other way to do this for the bulk grain system in western Canada.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Mr. Pratte, and thank you, Ms. Valdez.

Mr. Perron, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you very much

Mr. Thériault, earlier, Ms. Wright mentioned the possibility of offering support to truckers with respect to driver's licences. Is that what you have in mind when you talk about facilitating training in the sector? Is that a good example of a small concrete measure that could help?

[Pascal Thériault]

This could indeed help. I know that education is a provincial jurisdiction, but I can say that my approach is one of general enhancement of the agri-food sector in terms of the employment and training sector with young people.

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

I fully understand what you are saying.

With respect to temporary foreign workers, groups have submitted an emergency plan to us that could be put in place quickly. Many people also said that we should perhaps facilitate the immigration of these people in order to reduce the pressure on the labour force in the agricultural sector.

What do you think?

[Pascal Thériault]

Because we have built a system that depends on these temporary foreign workers, we need to be able to facilitate their arrival and their mobility, so that they can change employers or sectors of employment while they are in Canada.

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

Thank you very much.

Mr. Carey, in your presentation you mentioned the need for a reliable rail system, a reliable transportation system.

Do you have any specific recommendations for the committee? Do you have any concrete measures in mind for that?

[Steve Pratte]

I think one thing from the shipper's perspective is that we need to see more accountability in the railway-shipper relationship. There have been attempts to tackle this in multiple legislative occurrences over the last few years, but certainly—to one of the earlier questions—shippers order rail cars on the commercial system, and there's no accountability when they aren't delivered.

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

With respect to congestion at the ports, a witness at another meeting told us about the possibility of removing the Competition Act exemption for container owners.

Do you think that might be an interesting avenue to reduce congestion?

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

I'm sorry, Mr. Perron, but your time is up.

Mr. MacGregor may be willing to yield some of his time to you.

We now have Mr. MacGregor for two and a half minutes.

Do you want to let that question finish out?

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

Sure, I'll allow a quick finishing of the answer to that.

Do you want to continue answering Mr. Perron's question?

[Steve Pratte]

Sure, I can just jump in for 10 seconds. Certainly, there are many in the ag industry who support what was discussed about the oligopoly and the ability for the federal government to look at the Competition Act to address that and free up capacity and service.

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

All right.

My questions are related to Mr. Perron's.

With respect to the Canada Transportation Act, just like on that accountability piece that you mentioned, do we build that accountability in through further amendments to the legislation, or do we need better regulatory authority under the existing act? I'm wondering how that would fit—

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Mr. MacGregor, I'm sorry. I think the translation channels have flipped. I'm going to talk in English and hope that Monsieur Perron can hear me.

Okay, we're good. Back to you.

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

I'll just repeat the question. On the accountability piece that you mentioned, do we best fit that in through amendments to existing legislation, or do we find room through regulatory authority under existing legislation? I'm wondering how we can best enforce that accountability aspect.

[Steve Pratte]

Very briefly, that has been a quest from grain shippers and other sector shippers for decades. We've inched towards it through various pieces of legislation and bills over time. Not being a lawyer, I think there's a threshold that's never been crossed in the verbiage within the act to allow what we refer to as a true reciprocal relationship.

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

Mr. Chair, I think I'll end there.

Thank you to our witnesses.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

You're a gentleman. Thank you for helping with that.

Colleagues, we were about 15 minutes delayed on the first panel. I'm going to use my discretion to give the Conservatives two and a half minutes, and then I'll go to Ms. Taylor Roy, who I know is the only one who hasn't had the chance to get questions.

We'll go to Mr. Barlow for two and a half minutes, then to Ms. Taylor Roy, and we'll finish up.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Thanks, Mr. Chair. This is great testimony from our witnesses.

We've talked about the Canada Transportation Act review, and I think that's something I'd like to touch on a little more as well, specifically with respect to how the United States has handled these recent supply chain issues by appointing a supply chain czar, putting in very punitive fines. We've seen the result of that, with shipping lanes having been diverted from Canada to the United States. We've asked for an investigation under the transportation act on shipping containers and supply chains.

Should we be following the U.S. lead here and implementing some of these very strong changes? Has the government been in touch with you on why they have not initiated the investigation under the transportation act?