Agriculture Committee on March 3rd, 2022

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

You were talking about some of the increased costs that your business is dealing with now, such as the transportation costs, which you didn't have to deal with a number of years ago. The food security of Vancouver Island has always been a big topic, and the margins of many farms, of course, are quite tight.

Can you maybe inform us what some of your conversations have been like with local producers on Vancouver Island and how those increased costs have really affected their ability to be viable and establish a sense of food security on Vancouver Island?

[Dennis Comeau]

Thank you.

We take weekly or daily phone calls regarding price increases, and most of the recent price increases have been based on commodity pricing. We have been very careful, when purchasing our ingredients coming in, that we do not go too long on contracts, just in case there is a fluctuation downward in pricing.

We do have some concerns. Some farms have reached out to the local agricultural minister to protect them from insolvency. I think we have some growers on the island who are on the borderline of shutting their doors as feed input costs are becoming too much and payback on the growing of chickens is just not coming their way.

I think the government needs to be a little more involved with the marketing board and the processors. Those on the island are in need of assistance, and freight is coming in at a high cost.

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

Thank you.

That brings me to my final question, in the minute that I have left.

You talked about the provincial government and how local farms have been approaching it. From the federal government's perspective—with the clear jurisdiction that we have over the transportation sector and the fact that the federal government does work with the provinces and there's shared jurisdiction in agriculture—are there any clear recommendations you would like to see us include in our report to the government so that it can act on those with some policy?

[Dennis Comeau]

Top Shelf Feeds is a huge advocate of bringing rail back. If we can get someone at the federal level to communicate to the province that we need to have the rail back to Duncan, I think that is going to reduce the costs to the end-user, and I think that's what we're going to be fighting for in the next few years.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Mr. MacGregor and Mr. Comeau.

Mr. Falk now has the floor for five minutes.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Thank you very much.

I just want to say thank you to all the witnesses for joining us today.

Mr. Innes, I would like to begin with you. You talked about a supply chain commissioner who would have been empowered by the minister had they been appointed already. In the meantime, we've seen the value chain round table dismantled. I'm wondering whether you would have perhaps seen that as being able to fulfill the role of a commissioner.

[Brian Innes]

Thanks for the question.

What we see is that it's really important to have a full, focused discussion with a commissioner who's empowered and with the right stakeholders focused on the current situation. We have had different round tables in the past. I think what's really important about the current situation is that we have the right focus for that commissioner on the situation at hand. Past round tables have not always been focused on current challenges.

What we see in front of us is a serious challenge with container shipping. We were heartened to see some action from the Five Eyes last week, including Canada, in sharing some intelligence on international shipping actions.

A shipping czar or a supply chain commissioner would be able to bring together the right agencies of government, the right stakeholders—international and Canadian—to really have an in-depth focus and discussion to produce an outcome.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Thank you for that.

In the House of Commons, my colleague Damien Kurek, MP for Battle River—Crowfoot, suggested that mandating a reduction of 30% in nitrogen fertilizer would deeply impact farmers. The Minister of Agriculture, in her response, indicated that she's talking to farmers all the time and that they're on board with the reduction in the use of nitrogen.

Based on your experience—and I'm sure you're talking to producers all the time as well—would you agree that your farmers would support a reduction in the amount of nitrogen that would be available for them to grow their crops?

[Brian Innes]

Thanks for the question, Mr. Falk.

Certainly, when we look at Manitoba, we have growers growing a number of different crops—corn, soybeans, canola and wheats. In the Red River Valley, there's a very diverse ecosystem with lots of options for growers, which is fantastic. When the soybean part of that rotation comes in, they are not required to use nitrogen fertilizer. Soybeans are part of crop rotation, and producers need to grow multiple crops to have a healthy ecosystem and to manage their risk.

Producers are certainly looking at how they can make that crop rotation as sustainable, as resilient and as risk-manageable over time as they can, and nitrogen fertilizer is part of getting yields for other crops—not for soybeans, because we don't need nitrogen applied, but for other crops.

I think your question is a good one. Farmers are certainly looking to be sustainable over the long term. Reducing nitrogen for the sake of reducing nitrogen is a challenging one even if farmers are looking to be a partner in sustainable agriculture.

It's really about producing more with less and being responsible in the long term.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Right. The bean growers in my area typically rotate their crops. I was wondering whether in your regular conversations with these farmers they would have commented on that. Thank you for that answer.

Ms. Ventin, I'd like to direct a few questions your way, if I may. You indicated that there is a shortage of labour and that labour costs have gone up about 16%. Can you expand on that just a little bit?

[Carla Ventin]

Sure. I appreciate the question. I'm pleased that a couple of our member companies, Lactalis and Burnbrae Farms, are in your riding.

On the shortage of labour and the costs, yes, they have increased. Different factors go into this. We know that food manufacturers have increased their wages significantly over the pandemic, up 16%. This is much higher than other manufacturers in the way they've increased their wages. There are a lot of costs involved in absenteeism, for example, where we see it up to 20%. If someone doesn't show up for a shift, the production line may have to stop, or you may have to bring in other workers or call people or make sure to find substitutes and whatnot.

As well, there are concerns when workers do not show up for other reasons—

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

I'm sorry for interrupting you, but you're out of time, Ms. Ventin.

Thank you, Mr. Falk.

[Carla Ventin]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

It's now Mr. Louis's turn.

Go ahead for five minutes, Mr. Louis.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that.

I want to thank all of the witnesses for being here today. It's an important discussion.

Ms. Ventin, I want to pick up where my colleague left off. You mentioned the word “absenteeism” twice. You also talked about supply chain disruptions, labour gaps and increased costs. All of that really has to do with workforce shortages. We're speaking about the health and safety of our workers. In this pandemic, there are a lot of measures taken and a lot of support from the federal government to make sure that workers are there and can get to work and keep going. Thank you to everyone in the entire supply chain for making sure that we had food throughout this, all throughout the supply chain.

Can you expand on some of the lessons we learned, especially in the processing system with congregate employees? How can we make sure that moving on, when this pandemic is done, we can still protect the health and safety of workers? As you said, up to 20% of people being absent is an extreme cost to you. It will disrupt supply chains, and that's a problem. What can we learn from the lessons from the past two years? How can we protect the health and safety of workers?

[Carla Ventin]

Sure. This is really important. I think a lot of the things, as I certainly hear from our member companies, are permanent. Whether it's changing the layout of facilities, adding in additional health and safety requirements or having different spacing and more training and safety, all of these are extremely important. There's better understanding now of the support that workers need from a mental health perspective. We see companies certainly stepping up and providing those supports, as well as support on the home front. That's why I made my earlier comment on child care being so important.

I think a lot of these lessons learned are permanent. From the companies I speak to, these are things that are not going to go away. These are things that are going to continue. I would add here that we do have to thank essential workers. They didn't miss a beat throughout the pandemic. They were under an enormous amount of stress. I think it's important that we continue to support them.

My final point here is with regard to flexibility and really understanding workers on an individual basis, understanding their home life and the challenges they face. I think that's an important lesson learned: Look at workers as people, individually, and provide the flexibility, compassion and supports they need.

Thank you.

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

I appreciate that perspective. I do agree that we can learn from the challenges and everyone can take those ideas and make them permanent.

You also mentioned twice the grocery code of conduct. I know that part of the challenge we're talking about here is the concentrated market, whether it's containers or possibly the retail market. That's highly concentrated, with five retailers controlling about 80% of the market. It's an enormous buying power over suppliers. There's a call to create a balanced and competitive retail environment. That would benefit everyone in the food supply chain, right from our farmers all the way down to our consumers. An industry-wide code of conduct would help to establish fair business practices and possibly stabilize that imbalance of power.

Can you share your organization's viewpoint on this, on how we can work together as federal, provincial and territorial governments and private industry on your idea of a grocery code of conduct, how you think that can apply, and how it would affect affordability and also our supply chains?

[Carla Ventin]

Everything you said is music to our ears. For many years—as long as I've been where I am, for over 10 years—we've been pushing for a code to balance the relationship between the large grocery stores and suppliers across Canada. Over a year ago, we launched a Canadian code based on the U.K. model, with Sobeys. This was a really important initiative because it got it on the table at the FPT agenda, which I think was great.

We need it. Two other points were raised, as well. It's not just for small suppliers; it's for large suppliers, as well. It will help mitigate cost inflation. It will ensure and encourage innovation within Canada. We can make as much food as we want, but if we can't get it predictably and in a cost-effective way onto a grocery store shelf, it cannot reach consumers. We are 110%.

The only thing I would say on that is that we need this to be mandatory. We need it to be legislated, to be enforceable and to happen very quickly.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Ms. Ventin and Mr. Louis.

I'll now give the floor to Mr. Perron for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We'll move on, Ms. Ventin. I'm glad Mr. Louis talked about the code. We can talk about labour.

I'd like you to tell us what you need as soon as possible. Do you have one or two recommendations for the government in terms of labour? You talked about foreign workers, among other things.

[Carla Ventin]

Yes, thank you.

We need to recognize that there are not enough Canadians willing to fill these jobs, so the first thing we need to recognize is that we need foreign workers. That's a really important acknowledgement to make.

We need to bring in workers in different ways. We need to increase economic immigration. We need to increase the temporary foreign worker program. We need to bring in more of these workers quickly in a more cost-effective way and with a higher cap.

I've heard the challenge, especially for small companies, of the cost of bringing in foreign workers. We need to address that, as well. I hear it's about $1,000, so I think that's something to look at.

As well, I'll go back to Mr. Barlow's comments at the Canadian Federation of Agriculture yesterday. I was pleased to see your interest there in putting forward a private member's bill on waiving the labour market impact assessment, because it just needs to be understood that if companies can hire someone down the street, they will. It is a lot easier. It is a lot more cost-effective. You need to trust that companies can't hire domestically, so we do need the support to bring these folks in.

A final point is that the steps the Liberal government is taking are very good, but we need more resources toward them so they're done much more quickly, as well as a few additional things I mentioned.

Thank you.

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

Thank you very much.

Other witnesses and groups suggested that a massive investment policy be put in place to modernize infrastructure in the agri‑food industry.

I'd like you to talk to us about that need in 30 seconds.

[Brian Innes]

Yes, certainly we see opportunities to invest in our infrastructures, even if it's rail to the west coast. The Port of Vancouver plays a very important role in the export of grain, including soybeans. We see opportunities to invest in the east coast, as well. It's very important to see where we're going to produce more grain in 10 years and to have the infrastructure in place to do that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Mr. Perron and Mr. Innes.

Now, Mr. MacGregor has the floor for two and a half minutes.