Agriculture Committee on Feb. 28th, 2022

[Dr. Rebecca Lee]

We have no direct answers just now beyond the formation of the task force that was mentioned at the supply chain summit. I'm not involved directly in the actual working groups for that, so I wouldn't be able to answer on the specifics.

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

Okay, thank you very much.

Mr. Al‑Katib, I would like you to tell me about the recommendations that you mentioned briefly in your presentation. Can you tell me more about them? Let's assume that you are speaking directly to the government today through this committee. Do you have two or three flagship proposals that you would like to explain in some detail for us?

[Murad Al-Katib]

One of the areas we focused a lot of attention on at the strategy table was agile regulations. When we look at the regulatory burden that is facing the agriculture and food sector.... No pun intended, but the siloed approach of government has been quite detrimental when we look at the overall responsibilities of Agriculture Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Health Canada and the Canadian Grain Commission, to name just a few.

This is not about sacrificing public trust and public safety, but the separate nature.... The way in which government is acting is imposing additional regulatory burdens, so Canadian companies are launching products and business initiatives in the United States because it's easier to deal with the FDA than it is to deal with our own Canadian regulatory system. This is wrong in terms of investment and wrong in terms of growth.

On the infrastructure side, I mentioned long-term infrastructure planning. Australia is another example we mentioned on the labour side, and it's the same thing on infrastructure. They are doing 50-year infrastructure planning that is again linking the multimodal nature of roads, rails, ports and bridges, and ensuring that infrastructure is planned over a very long term to accommodate trade.

In addition to trade infrastructure, our recommendations were that digital infrastructure be expanded throughout rural Canada, and that we can't run an economy based on the new digital opportunity just from Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary. The rural areas and agricultural digital broadband access are critical for the growth of our economy. Those are a few recommendations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Mr. Perron and Mr. Al‑Katib. I added a few seconds because of the interpretation problems.

We now go to Mr. MacGregor, for six minutes.

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

Thank you so much, Chair.

Maybe I'll continue with you, Mr. Al-Katib, on the subject of infrastructure. You have made some good comments about the need for long-term infrastructure planning, ones that go beyond our electoral cycles. It's interesting to see what Australia has, as you mentioned.

You have seen, as we all have, how climate change has wrought havoc just in the last few months with our transportation infrastructure. Of course, British Columbia has been under threat from wildfires. The Prairies, of course, have had their issues with droughts, which have impacted producers' ability to supply the grain that so many depend on.

How have the impacts of climate change and the future consequences from it impacted your thinking on what we need to address in terms of our infrastructure planning?

[Murad Al-Katib]

Once again, sir, I think that the volatility we're seeing in weather patterns and the effect on both infrastructure and our growing conditions re-emphasizes the need for long-term planning. We're going to have consistent production at a certain base level, but we're seeing that with the gains in technology, digital yields and things, the crop in western Canada, the Canadian crop, can now move from an average of, let's say, 56 million tonnes and it will be not unusual to see 72 to 75 million tonnes depending on whether conditions go well or not.

You can't move a system for 20 million additional tonnes without some long-term planning. Part of that is, again, traditional rail; we need to get products that belong in pipes in pipes and we need to get product that belongs on rail on rail. We need to optimize the best and safest use of transporting those commodities. We need to ensure as well that we recognize that multimodal infrastructure will provide surge capacity.

If we look at intermodal and container systems that are running on separate trains and bulk systems, that is a good way in which we can create capacity that can come in and out as we need it. I think, again, the move to [Inaudible—Editor] is important.

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

Thank you, Mr. Al-Katib. I just need to get a few more questions in to our other witnesses.

Ms. Wright, maybe I'll turn to you. I'm curious. In the studies you've done and in consultations, particularly with our educational facilities, reaching out to high school and post-secondary students, have you done any kind of survey? What are students' perceptions of what agricultural jobs are? Are they aware of what opportunities exist and what skills are needed? I think we need to have that kind of feedback if we need to do more outreach to our students to let them know what the changing nature of agriculture is today and in the future.

[Jennifer Wright]

It is part of the work that we have started to undertake in the last year, in particular with our agritalent program, reaching out to post-secondary students. Anecdotally, we've heard that there isn't a great awareness among non-agriculture students or those who may not have grown up in a rural or agriculture environment about the opportunities that are there. It's part of the work that we're undertaking, and we're looking to work with industry and government to also support the work in raising the awareness and addressing some of the perceptions that may not be accurate about those opportunities.

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

Could the federal government be doing more, particularly with financial aid to students, like more grants that are specifically oriented to certain sectors, like the highly technical nature in some agricultural sectors? Do we need more educational grants to encourage people to get their class 1 licences for long-haul trucking? Do you have some recommendations you would like to see us include in our committee report?

[Jennifer Wright]

Any support that would encourage people to consider all the opportunities that are available in agriculture would be welcomed, and certainly, as you mentioned, with class 1 drivers and things like that, it can be very expensive to get your licence, so any support around that would be welcomed and would be helpful.

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

Thank you so much.

My final question is for the Canadian Horticultural Council, Ms. Lee and Mr. Woods.

I know this has been a time of great stress on your sector, and thank you for very clearly illuminating that. I'm also wondering, though, whether there are any notable examples of your members who have been innovating to meet these challenges. I know we ultimately want to have good recommendations for what the federal government can do, but do you have any notable examples of how members have been stepping up to try to meet these challenges in new and innovative ways?

[Quinton Woods]

There are lots of signs of innovation across the sector from coast to coast, whether it's in the greenhouse industry in Leamington, Ontario or potato producers in P.E.I., Quebec or Ontario. There's innovation through automation, camera grading systems and the reduction of labour resources, but those all come with extreme challenges, as they are new and up-and-coming production methods and technologies.

We lack the expertise to maintain and service those systems, so it's an ongoing struggle that now we've changed from manual labour processes to requiring engineers, industrial millwrights and stuff like that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Mr. MacGregor and Mr. Woods.

Colleagues, we're at time for the first panel. We had technical difficulties. We have the ability to extend, but I also know that following this meeting, those who might participate in question period may want some time to prepare. How would you like us to proceed? Would you like to do five and five? If that's okay with our friends from the Bloc, we'll do five and five, and then move on to our next one.

I now give the floor to Mr. Lehoux, who has five minutes.

We will then finish with Mr. Louis's turn.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank the witnesses for being with us this afternoon.

My first question is for Ms. Wright or Ms. Lee, and it has to do with a possible strategy that we would like to see put in place.

Who would coordinate this strategy? What powers would be included in this strategy? Have you thought about this? There is talk of creating a supply chain commissioner. Now there are a lot of bodies and a lot of regulation, but I'm not convinced that there's one person who oversees it all and can give us the straight goods.

What is your opinion on such a strategy? It is important, but who will implement it and to whom would that person be accountable?

Ms. Lee, would you please begin?

[Dr. Rebecca Lee]

Are you talking about the supply chain commissioner or the workforce strategy?

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

I think we really need to take a broad view of these two elements and adopt a strategy on the whole issue of the workforce. What would be the role of the procurement commissioner? It is important to understand what role he would play in each of these two elements.

First, who will be responsible for the strategy?

[Dr. Rebecca Lee]

As far as the commissioner is concerned, I believe he would play a coordinating role.

It's a collaborative coordinating role, so it would be bringing together the different departments to make sure that everybody is going in the same direction and that there's agreement on what the direction and the actions should be for that.

For the labour strategy and the labour work, I will let Ms. Wright answer, because she's been more involved in that than I have.

[Jennifer Wright]

It's a very good question of who leads and where the accountability is. That's something we are building into the work that we're doing.

Our organization has been the coordinator, but it's something where we're bringing industry together. Ensuring that as many industry representatives as possible are part of that process is very important, and building actionable items into the strategy that have timelines and accountability is what we're looking to do.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you for your reply.

When I look at the difficulties associated with the whole labour issue, I realize that there are often two or three departments involved in coordination. So there is a lack of coordination. Will the appointment of a commissioner be the solution to this lack, or will there be a designated person in the strategy? Regardless of which one, one of these departments should be responsible. Indeed, at present, the various stakeholders are being shuffled back and forth.

What is your view on this?

[Jennifer Wright]

From the strategy point of view, I would say that we're really happy to see that there is increased coordination between, for example, the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food and ESDC, but there probably needs to be more coordination and moving more in that direction to help with some of the issues, as you mentioned.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Is the Australian model much clearer? Is there someone in charge, who speaks to deadlines, which are very important? In fact, at the moment we are going astray. You say our labour shortage doubles every 10 years. So we are getting in getting deeper and deeper.

My question is for Ms. Wright.

[Jennifer Wright]

Thank you. They are getting more complicated. We can see from the Australian approach at this point that it's more of a report and recommendations. We are looking at how they are following up on those recommendations. For us and for the work we're doing in Canada, we're very interested in ensuring that all of this work is actionable, as I mentioned, and not just a report or recommendations. There needs to be something that can identify who is going to move things forward and make sure the commitment for those organizations is there to move things forward.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Ms. Wright and Mr. Lehoux.

Mr. Louis, you have five minutes.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank all the witnesses and their sectors for continuing to step up and supplying food during these challenging few years. It's very much appreciated.

I would like to begin my questioning with Mr. Al-Katib from the agri-food economic strategy table.

You mentioned the protein extraction plant in Regina. There have been advancements in government funding for the value-added transformation of raw goods such as Natural Products Canada, the Protein Industries Canada supercluster, like you said, in Regina.

What kinds of impacts have they had, and why is that innovation in value-added products important? What is the impact on Canadians here, and what would the impact be for exports?

[Murad Al-Katib]

Definitely, the supercluster has moved the needle in terms of taking about $172 million of government funding and partnering it with roughly $374 million of private sector funding. Canada has taken a marked step forward in the area of the innovation pipeline on the plant-based protein side.

Now it's about commercialization. When we look at the demand of the consumer around the world, we see this isn't about consuming less traditional protein. Protein demand is growing faster than we can produce it. There is an opportunity that will spread right to return at the farm gate. Advances in digital agriculture are going to allow us to track the gains in sustainability, traceability and food safety. That's going to mean much higher return at the farm gate. That's the exciting part of that opportunity.