Agriculture Committee on March 21st, 2022

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Of course.

Once again, different countries are working differently regarding this. I really believe that CFIA has a strong reputation internationally. We are delivering what we say we are delivering, and Canada can be looked at as a trusted partner. I would appreciate development in new markets and to be less dependent....

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you.

The next speakers will be Mr. Lehoux and Mr. Louis. They will have the floor for four minutes each.

Mr. Lehoux, you have the floor.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good morning, Minister. Thank you for being with us this morning.

I am going to talk about labour, particularly in the pork production sector, which, as you know, is very important in Quebec and Ontario.

One employer in my riding employs 1,200 workers, but it is currently short 300 to meet the need. The labour shortage translates into overflowing piggeries, and the farmers are seriously starting to consider euthanasia.

The percentage of hirees who can be foreign workers has been raised from 10% to 20%. At the beginning of the year, you announced that the process for integrating these workers was going to be simplified and improved. But last year, the employer I just mentioned was short 200 employees, and it is now short 300. So the situation has not improved.

What is happening in the departments? Why can the foreign workers not be brought in as quickly as possible?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Thank you for the question.

In Quebec, yes, the percentage of hirees who can be foreign workers has risen from 10% to 20%. When workers initiate the process of applying for permanent residence, they are no longer considered to be part of that percentage. So that gives us some leeway.

The problem in connection with labour will not be solved just by bringing in foreign workers. However, we do need a large number of those workers.

We are also working on other fronts, and, in particular, we are trying to attract young people through the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy in the agricultural sector. We have also committed to improving tax incentives so that seniors can keep working longer, for example.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

In my riding, the unemployment rate is 2.6%. It is a good idea to try to attract young people, but there is a definite labour shortage. How can we improve our processing capacity?

As you know, Minister, we have tabled a report once again and I would hope that you have already seen it. Some things in it could be put in place quickly to enable small slaughterhouses to come back. Concentration in the slaughtering industry is taking us toward that kind of situation.

What is your position in that regard? Without lowering standards, we could cut the red tape to help these small slaughterhouses.

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

In terms of foreign labour, Ms. Qualtrough is working to facilitate the process. You also know that for economic immigration, Quebec bears some of the responsibility. Canada and Quebec have to be more open.

On the question of small slaughterhouses, some fall under provincial jurisdiction and others under federal jurisdiction. At the federal level, Canada has to meet the international standards, because that is what enables Canadian producers to export their products. The federal government also regulates interprovincial exports. Under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, funds are transferred to the provinces. Certain programs are provided and administered by the Quebec government, but the funding comes in part from the federal government.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Minister, I would hope it will be possible to accelerate these processes. I have been a member of Parliament for two and a half years and I have been hearing about this for all that time. In concrete terms, little has been accomplished.

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

The initiative has to come from the private sector.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Yes, and it wants to move in that direction. However, and you will agree with me, Minister, there is far too much red tape. We can meet the international standards without getting bogged down in them.

To conclude, I would like to talk to you about the restriction put in place during the pandemic that prevents foreign workers from moving from one company to another. This is a major problem at present.

Are there plans to cancel that restriction?

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Minister, can you answer the question briefly? I have to give the next speaker the floor.

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

My answer will be brief.

I know that Ms. Qualtrough is working on a major reform of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, and that this will be given consideration.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you.

Mr. Louis, you now have the floor for four minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for being here. I very much appreciate it and all the witnesses who we're going to be talking to today.

I wanted to talk about food loss prevention. About a third of the food grown at present here is wasted. About $49 billion a year is Canada's portion. Much of the focus right now is on diverting food waste. Right now, programs are emphasizing organic waste management, so that organic waste does not end up in landfills, where it generates methane gas during decomposition.

The best way to reduce the numbers is to keep the food in the food chain in the first place, by focusing on food loss prevention rather than these more efficient ways of destroying or modifying food waste. We know that prevention creates the greatest economic social and environmental benefits. Once you reduce food loss at any point in the chain, you're automatically saving it all the way back up the chain. If we're wasting a third of the food we grow, we're automatically wasting a third of the fertilizer, a third of the fuel and a third of the land that it took to grow it.

Minister, can you share with us some of the programs and the solutions that we have and would like to implement to combat food waste?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

I'm sure you know about the food waste challenges that are already ongoing. We have passed the first wave, let's say. We have selected, across the four different challenges, about 44 semifinalists, if I remember, who are moving forward with the development of either their business model or a technology. I think we will have from this challenge very good ideas that we will want to scale up and apply in different regions across the country.

You might have seen also in my mandate letter that we have a plan for a fund that will be dedicated to reducing food waste across the food supply chain. As you said, this will have impacts on climate change, actually, because this generates a lot of emissions. It will be good for farmers. It will be good, because when you integrate the literacy part, it can also help in terms of food security to better manage the food we already have.

We are looking at different options and are investing in research and innovation as well.

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

That's fantastic. Yes, the sustainability of the program itself would be most helpful, because we want to keep this moving forward.

You touched on the scalability of it. In my riding of Kitchener—Conestoga, we have a company called Enviro-Stewards. They're an environmental engineering business. They go to the food manufacturers and help them reduce food loss and prevent water waste. On average, they work with 50 plants and save about $250,000 per plant. That gives higher margins and a smaller carbon footprint.

I wanted to ask you how we can help with the scalability of this. Will we be able to support smaller producers as well as larger companies? How can we work with all sizes of company?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

I think we will keep working together while we are developing this new fund. I was wondering if we could also, in some cases, use the clean tech program, but anyway, we will be consulting you while we develop the new fund.

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

That's perfect. Thank you, Minister.

Thank you, Chair. I believe that's my time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Mr. Lewis, and thank you, Minister.

That concludes our one-hour panel with you today. On behalf of all the committee members, I would like to thank you for your time and for your leadership. As you mentioned in your remarks, there are challenges globally, particularly with what's happening in Ukraine and elsewhere, but there are also opportunities, and we know you'll rise to the occasion. We look forward, as a committee, to continuing to support your work and helping to provide recommendations to the government.

All the best. We'll excuse you at this point. You can go enjoy your lunch.

Colleagues, we're going to break for three or four minutes. Speaking of food waste and not letting it go to waste, the clerk wanted me to remind you that we have lunch at the back. She orders this faithfully so we can have a quick bite, so please enjoy the lunch.

We'll be back in three or four minutes. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Colleagues, we're going to get back at it. As was mentioned by the minister, we have a number of her colleagues here, including the deputy minister, Mr. Forbes.

Order, folks. I know we're all enjoying a bit of lunch, but I have to be able to hear myself speak.

Mr. Forbes, I see your hand. I'll try to quieten down my colleagues here. We're going to go over to you.

[Chris Forbes, Deputy Minister, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. I'm having a computer problem, and I'm worried my battery is going to die. My computer seems to be crashing. I will stay with you as long as it lasts, but I'm having screen and other failures.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Let's get right at it, then.

[Chris Forbes]

My colleague, Madam Guérard, is there if there are questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

I'm sure some of the colleagues will want to get right to you, so stay with us as long as you can, please and thanks.

A few folks are saying that it's convenient, but we know that's unfortunate.

We're going to start with Mr. Falk. I believe he's on the screen.

Folks, we're getting right to questions. The officials are here to follow up on what we spoke about with the minister.

Mr. Falk, you have six minutes. We'll go over to you.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Very good.

Officials, thank you very much for joining us this morning. I am looking forward to the answers you're going to be providing for us.

This committee, some time ago, asked for numbers on the AgriInvest program, with a breakdown by provinces, sectors and also with account balances of less than $10,000. Is that information that's going to be coming fairly shortly?

[Chris Forbes]

I'm not sure we can provide all of that, but we should be able to provide some of that. In fact, I apologize if it's been requested and we have not provided it, because our goal is always to follow up promptly to committee requests.