Agriculture Committee on Oct. 23rd, 2023

[Brodie Berrigan]

Thank you for the question.

As you would have heard us say a few weeks ago when we testified before this committee on that bill, it is extremely important for our members. It's something we've heard about on a regular basis. We need to be putting resources into supporting biosecurity on farm. We need to support the mental health of farmers. There are significant trade implications associated with biosecurity. We are very much in support of that bill and hope to see it pass as quickly as possible.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Mr. Berrigan.

Thank you, Mr. Barlow. That's your time.

I will now turn it over to Ms. Taylor Roy.

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

Mr. Chair, I'm just going to take a couple of minutes first to make a statement with regard to the availability of CO2.

I want to thank Ms. Lockwood for appearing before this committee. I know many of her colleagues in B.C. would have had some issues with access to CO2 within the first 72 hours.

I did meet with Mark Siemens, who is the president of the B.C. Poultry Association, and I met with the B.C. Turkey Marketing Board, the B.C. Chicken Marketing Board, the B.C. Broiler Hatching Egg Commission and the B.C. Egg Marketing Board back in January. We agreed.... I know the CFIA regional director was out there meeting, just to see how we could improve things.

AAFC had found a supplier in Alberta and was bringing in CO2 and storing it at its facilities, because broilers are so close by in your area, as you would know. I'm thankful to hear that you haven't been impacted. Obviously, you're doing the right thing and implementing the right measures.

I just didn't want to leave this committee with the impression that there's still a lack of access to CO2, as I know that issue had been solved. It was solved at the time, when I was there in January, but I know that better is always possible. That's the agreement the CFIA has done to continue working together.

You've made some comments about having a better interaction with CFIA employees and farmers. Those are great comments for this committee. I want thank you for appearing before this committee and for your comments.

I'll pass it over to you, Ms. Taylor Roy.

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

Thank you, Chair.

I just want to follow up with the issue of the backyard flocks that you were talking about, Ms. Lockwood.

You mentioned that disease had been transmitted through those backyard flocks. Is that correct?

[Cammy Lockwood]

Yes.

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

It never came onto your farm. You never had a problem with it.

[Cammy Lockwood]

No. I'm actually on Vancouver Island. We are isolated here, but we had a number of cases of high path AI due to backyard flocks. A number in very small and very remote communities came up.

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

Thank you.

Have you ever heard of or had any of the avian influenza passed on to your flocks, or others that you've heard of, from trespassers?

[Cammy Lockwood]

We haven't had that from trespassers.

Consider what we go through ourselves to just enter our barn on a daily basis. We change our boots at the front of the barn and we wear our barn slippers. Then from our anteroom, we have access to two different flocks. We have separate boot changes for each flock as well as a separate pair of coveralls. We wash our hands regularly in between.

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

You adhere to very high security measures, but you've never had an instance or heard of an instance when trespassers have actually brought any of these diseases into the farm.

[Cammy Lockwood]

No, I haven't heard of an instance like that, but it can be very difficult to know how you contracted avian influenza.

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

I want to go to Mr. Joly for a minute.

It sounds like a lot of the avian influenza does come from wild birds.

How do you think the research work you're doing in coordination with the provinces—I know they have jurisdiction over a lot of this—is helping to curb that?

[Dr. Damien Joly]

That's an excellent question. Thank you very much for that question.

We work really closely with all the provinces and the territories, and our role is a support role. Ultimately, we all know there's a constitutional mandate for provinces, the federal government and indigenous nations for wildlife and wildlife health. The support we provide is really tailored to what's needed.

For example, in British Columbia, they have a very active program. We're involved to a lesser degree in British Columbia because of the way it's put together, but across the country our work allows essentially.... I don't want to say “real-time early warning”, but it allows early warning, because we are going to see high path avian influenza in wild birds before it shows up in farms. We'll see birds dying out on the landscape. By identifying them on the landscape, we can alert the authorities and alert farms in a particular area and say, “Hey, avian influenza is in this area.”

You should always make the assumption that it's there, but actually knowing that it's in the region is I think helpful, because it's really hard to maintain that super high-level biosecurity all the time. I'm not a farmer, but I understand. It's very difficult and it's expensive. Maintaining that biosecurity at such a high level all the time is very difficult, but if you know the virus is in the region, then you can adjust as necessary. I think even that simple fact of knowing where the virus is helps.

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

Do you work with CFIA as well when you detect an outbreak?

[Dr. Damien Joly]

Absolutely. The way the system works is that we'll get a call about a dead animal. A dead goose or a dead skunk will be reported. It will come to one of our labs. We'll do the preliminary screening test and then send samples to the lab in Winnipeg for confirmation. We can't actually say, “That's high path avian influenza.” That's CFIA's role. We work very closely with CFIA on an ongoing basis.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

We'll have to leave it at that, Ms. Taylor Roy. Thank you so much.

Mr. Perron, you have the floor for six minutes.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Madam and gentlemen witnesses, I'd like to thank you for joining us today. We are very grateful for your availability.

Mr. Lampron, in your statement, you talked about the importance of a traceability system. You know the dairy industry better than most. To your knowledge, are our traceability measures generally sufficient in Quebec and Canada? Are there improvements to be made in this respect?

[Pierre Lampron]

A lot of work has been done in recent years in this regard, especially for beef production. Obviously, the dairy and beef sectors are treated somewhat separately in the regulations. However, we should still recognize the work that has been done in terms of traceability...

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

I'm sorry to interrupt, but there may be an interpretation issue. English is coming through on the French channel and vice versa.

I will therefore continue on in French until this is sorted out.

Okay. There you go.

You may resume, Mr. Perron.

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

We're now experiencing what I go through every day, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Lampron, let's continue, shall we? I was asking you if you felt that traceability was sufficient in the dairy industry and in general.

[Pierre Lampron]

We must recognize all the work that's been done on traceability, because there's been a lot of focus on it, I believe. That needs to continue.

As I said earlier, we need to improve cooperation. Producers are making a huge effort, but in my opinion, traceability measures need to be put in place in concert with the government and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

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

Okay, thank you. Other than doing more, do you have a specific recommendation for the committee on this?

[Pierre Lampron]

I would simply say that more needs to be done. Thank you.

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

I have another question about traceability, more specifically about what you do on your farm.

I know that your farm, in particular, has been looking at local markets and you tried to make a high-quality product that you unfortunately had to discontinue recently. That's precisely why you're well placed to talk about this with the committee.

If our regional processing capacity could be improved, through better government support among other things, could animal security also be improved? Fewer animals would need to travel long distances, like the ones that must be driven to Pennsylvania before they're slaughtered. If we had processing facilities closer to home, do you feel that would improve the situation?

[Pierre Lampron]

Thank you for the question.

The answer is yes, and this takes me back to your first question, which is important.

Traceability could also be improved with respect to diseases. In addition, regarding trade, we lack full traceability from stable to table, in my opinion. We producers establish all our animal traceability in terms of biosecurity, and I think we do a good job. However, for trade, there's a lot of room for improvement. For example, it would be good to know where the animal came from and how it was raised, right up to the moment it's sold to the consumer. This would also be good for the regional economy.