Evidence of meeting #30 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was producers.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Executive Director, Canadian Forage and Grassland Association
I think some more active yield tracking year over year and some support for growers to do that would go a long way to help us understand what that variability is, year in and year out. Yield monitoring technology is fairly ubiquitous within the grains and oilseed sector, to their credit and their benefit. We're seeing some of those technologies starting to move forward in the forage sector as well, so I think we need to embrace that.
As I said in my comments, we tend to lag behind the world in terms of technology and innovation adoption here in Canada, so I think a push on some digital tech to track yield would go a long way toward helping us achieve the goals that Mr. Audet just mentioned.
I also think we should look at how AgriStability works structurally. In a mixed operation, you have grain and cattle, and those tend to offset one another, so in a lot of cases, mixed farms tend to be self-insuring. If we can look at how to break that forage production itself out of the overall enterprise, at CFGA, that's something we're really trying to advance—to look at the cattle enterprise with a forage focus and with a cattle focus and make sure we can tease the two out, because it makes a big difference in the end in how we can seek to insure the forage crop specifically.
Conservative
Steven Bonk Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Have you seen a huge impact when it comes to the closure of these research centres? I'll ask that in the context of when we're increasing the amount of forage we can produce on the land. What it'll actually do is increase the organic matter in the soil, which will increase water infiltration, which will help mitigate some of these issues.
Are you seeing an end to the research that's being done on that subject, Mr. MacLeod?
Executive Director, Canadian Forage and Grassland Association
Obviously, a challenge, as we heard from the witnesses on the first panel, is the loss of germplasm in those development programs. Of course, in the long term, that is going to have an impact. Somehow we're going to need to keep those breeding programs moving forward.
The other thing I would say, Mr. Bonk, as I said in my opening comments, is that we need an active extension service in this country to support forage producers and move up that pedigreed seed list so we're getting the best genetics possible being deployed at field scale. Then we would have the agronomic support to carry that product through and make sure we're maximizing the genetic potential of the species and cultivars we're putting down.
We've eroded our extension services, and we've eroded our training programs at universities. Forages tend to be the first ones to go, but, as you say, they are the cornerstone of sustainability, whether it's in terms of biodiversity or carbon storage, in Canadian agriculture. We're really behind the eight ball when we're closing research stations.
Conservative
Liberal
Sophie Chatel Liberal Pontiac—Kitigan Zibi, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to thank all the witnesses for joining us today to discuss this important matter.
Your ideas on how to reform business risk management programs, in particular the AgriStability program, are quite helpful. Feel free to submit your written recommendations, particularly regarding the AgriStability program.
I would like to invite each of you to continue the discussion that we had with the first panel. There are risk management programs in place, but they require reform to ensure good risk management or risk mitigation. It's also necessary to add deployment or funding components that would lead growers, for example, to adopt practices to help manage risks and thereby avoid these issues.
I would like to hear everyone's opinion on this, starting with Mr. MacLeod.
Executive Director, Canadian Forage and Grassland Association
Certainly.
One of the things we've been actively working on at CFGA over the last several years is building networks of extension professionals who can extend this kind of information. Certainly, we're working with our colleagues in the beef, dairy, sheep and bison sectors. We have to get this information out to the growers in a palatable form and help them with their paperwork burden. That's one of the challenges we're seeing. With so many programs and so many levels of support, the paperwork burden can be such a barrier. Therefore, we're really working on building networks of folks that can work one on one with the growers to make sure they are seeking and accessing these programs.
Liberal
Sophie Chatel Liberal Pontiac—Kitigan Zibi, QC
One of the witnesses spoke earlier about the possibility of transforming some of these programs into tax credits in order to cut red tape.
Can you tell me quickly, Mr. MacLeod, if this approach appeals to you?
Executive Director, Canadian Forage and Grassland Association
We're always interested in exploring options that can streamline things from a red tape perspective. Certainly, with beef prices being where they are and growers being in a more profitable situation, it may be an avenue to look at. At this point, I think I would lean towards more interaction and more extension service to get the information out to the growers, but we're always willing to look at options.
Liberal
Sophie Chatel Liberal Pontiac—Kitigan Zibi, QC
Thank you.
I would like to hear from Mr. Audet and Mr. Burrows and then from Ms. Sauser.
Chair, Conseil québécois des plantes fourragères
To ensure that growers have the tools needed to manage risks, it's obviously necessary to adapt. However, one thing that we haven't talked about is compensation for good practices.
Chair, Conseil québécois des plantes fourragères
We can talk about tax credits. However, there are also different ways of doing this. For example, we can think of the services that a grower provides to society. We're asking a great deal of agriculture these days on all fronts. All growers work hard to participate in the collective effort to improve the environment and reduce the risks associated with climate change. Our growers are also looking into the possibility of selling ecosystem services. That could be something useful.
Liberal
Sophie Chatel Liberal Pontiac—Kitigan Zibi, QC
Thank you. This could even take the form of a refundable tax credit.
What are your thoughts, Mr. Burrows?
Executive Director, Grain Growers of Canada
I think there are some interesting ideas percolating away.
Kate, perhaps you could just reinforce that.
Policy Manager, Grain Growers of Canada
Yes. We haven't quite explored tax credits with our members, but our main focus—which we will submit in writing to you, Ms. Chatel, as well—is protecting that crop insurance aspect, as it does prove to be very effective for our farmers, along with fixing AgriStability's responsiveness. As a farmer myself, I can say that we just had no fallback when we had that canola disruption.
Also, we need to just maintain flexibility across regions, because as we know, nothing is a one-size-fits-all, from B.C. to Quebec to the east coast. Lastly, we need to make sure that programs are focused on the actual risk itself, not necessarily the compliance.
Liberal
Sophie Chatel Liberal Pontiac—Kitigan Zibi, QC
Mr. Audet, the provinces are really responsible for implementing the AgriInsurance program, or crop insurance in Quebec. You said that you wanted an individual program. Do you have any specific recommendations in this area?
If you don't have time to talk about it, you can send us a written response.
Chair, Conseil québécois des plantes fourragères
As I said earlier, I'm not in a position to make a detailed recommendation. I'm not an insurance expert. However, our colleagues and partners will certainly be quite interested in this topic. We'll definitely contact them so that they can share their ideas with you.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative John Barlow
Thank you, Mr. Audet.
Thank you, colleagues.
Thank you very much to our witnesses for sticking around for an extra few minutes. I think it was important that we had the opportunity to hear your insights on this issue, certainly.
We have to go to vote, so is it the will of the committee to adjourn the meeting?