Agriculture Committee on May 28th, 2026

[Scott Yule]

Yes. I mean, there are a lot of on-farm sales. If you go to our website, for instance, you'll see where you can buy locally, directly from the farm. A lot of producers have gone that way. Particularly if there's a challenge moving animals to a federal plant, there's an opportunity there.

I would say there are a large number of producers who do—especially in Quebec and Ontario, because all the federal plants or the majority of the federal processing is in Alberta and in Manitoba. There are a number out there, for sure. The president of our association is actually from just outside of Toronto. He does a lot of on-farm sales. He has a market every Saturday morning. There are a number of those types of examples out there. I could show you, on our website, where you could access them.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Ms. Patterson, would you like to respond?

[Corlena Patterson]

Yes, of course. Thank you.

We have been working with the CFIA to see how we can evolve our meat inspection systems to help support the availability of that product on those store shelves. Eighty per cent of the sheep and lamb in Canada is processed in provincially inspected facilities, which means that once it's processed, it cannot move outside those borders. Given, in part, the large grocery store chains' centralized distribution of frozen meat and meat products, that makes it very difficult to not only get that provincial product into those distribution centres but to then get it across to the stores it supplies in various jurisdictions.

We had, historically, what we called—and CFIA quotes this now—an attempt at processing plants that were provincially inspected to go to federal inspection, which would have then been able to move product across provinces. For our industry, it's been called “the kiss of death”, and that is because you can't ramp up that production fast enough to fill your kill lines in the early days of your federal inspection, which comes at a far greater financial cost in operations. They couldn't sustain themselves through the growth period that would see enough producers supplying those plants in order to fill the kill line and make them profitable. It has almost always resulted in the closure of those plants.

Simply suggesting—and we've heard this from other folks along the way—that everybody should be federally inspected is not sustainable with the number of head that we're currently processing, but one day, yes, it will, with the ability to ramp up over time.

The proposal being drafted by CFIA may help fit with that, because it offers an opportunity for a provincial plant, with agreements between different provinces, to move processed meat into those provinces for a time-limited period of five to eight years and then make a decision whether they want to become fully federally inspected, or they can be federally inspected on some days and process product for those provincial movements. That would allow, gradually, our ability to get more of our product into the distribution centres and onto the mainstream shelves so that the Canadian consumer can appreciate Canadian lamb more than they currently can.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you very much.

My time is up.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Barlow]

Thank you very much.

I will now go to Mr. Bonk for five minutes, please.

[Steven Bonk, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

All right. Maybe I'll direct my comments towards Ryder and Brayden, right at the start here.

We know that the cattle producers are, by necessity, some of the most risk-tolerant people in business today. When it comes to very volatile markets, the cattle industry has been through a lot. We have weather to worry about. We have an increasing number of government regulations in Canada, which are adding extra costs to our producers. However, now the Liberals have two things in their hands that are existential threats to the Canadian cattle industry. They are the renegotiation of CUSMA and Mercosur. Mercosur is just, as we know, a fire alarm situation for the Canadian cattle industry.

Maybe I'll just ask you this, Ryder, really quickly: Can you just outline some of the potential impacts and the devastating effect that they will have on the Canadian cattle industry?

[Ryder Lee, General Manager, Canadian Cattle Association]

The framing is bang on. I look at simple solutions and often they have secondary or long-range impacts, but this one's right away.

The idea right now is food affordability: Let's import more and bring that price down. We already import 30% of the beef we sell in Canada. Any market impact of that is already going to be priced in.

What we have is a small herd with some positive signals going to people like Brayden to maybe keep some heifers, keep some cows and regrow that herd. If we just displace the supply this would provide, it takes away that signal. It takes away that ability to regrow our herd, and it won't have the benefit that's being purported by moving forward with this.

Just to be able to check a box to say that we got this new agreement, that isn't a win.

[Steven Bonk, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

I'd ask you to really quickly outline some of the phytosanitary and traceability issues that we could have in Canada. I know this is going to also affect the bison because they have the same disease risks as cattle.

[Ryder Lee]

The CUSMA thing is also very important. Our biggest export customer has some experience with South American beef, their slowness in reporting BSE cases and trust issues like that. We haven't been there to inspect their food safety system in a long time. The track record isn't very good. Our biggest export customer isn't comfortable with this.

Not only is it about our domestic market, but it's also about our biggest customer market and what steps it will take if it sees us as backdooring this supply into North America.

[Steven Bonk, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Exactly.

Mr. Schmidt, could you comment on this quickly? If the Liberal government signs CUSMA and uses beef as a bargaining chip, what signal does that send to youth in Canada about getting into the cattle industry?

[Brayden Schmidt]

Thank you for the question.

I think it will create further hesitation to invest, expand and grow. We're in very optimistic times for the younger generation, with the value right now. I think that some disruptions in negotiations with our trading counterparts would heavily impact the willingness of the younger generation to come home on a full-time basis or to invest into the business solely.

[Steven Bonk, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

I'm going to direct the next comment to Mr. Yule.

I was talking to a bison producer this morning in my constituency. He said that the biggest threat to his operation is government policy. He was talking specifically about CUSMA. Could you expand on what you had said earlier about how important that is to the Canadian bison industry and the risk it would have for future production in Canada?

[Scott Yule]

I mentioned quickly in my opening comments that two years ago, 80% of our animals went south of the border live. Our marketers had done an amazing job leading up to that, without knowing about some of the issues that were going to potentially happen at the border, by increasing slaughter capacity and increasing demand here in Canada. They've done an excellent job.

Even last year with that reduction in animals going across the border, it was still 50%. If anything ever happens to that border, it will be devastating for the industry—not only here but in the U.S. Our counterparts in the U.S. are as worried about it as we are.

I pretend to be a bit of a statistician. If I look at the number of animals we've exported versus what they've slaughtered in the U.S., they've had a lot of growth in demand as well. Over the last 10 years, about 80% of their growth has been with Canadian animals going south. Last year, when we reduced our quantity going across the border, they processed fewer animals because of that. About 60% of the lower volume was due to the lack of Canadian animals.

It's important for both of our industries. I quite often call it a North American industry. They're not growing it anywhere else in the world. Between Canada and the U.S., obviously, that's where most of it's eaten.

[Steven Bonk, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Would you see a cost-shared livestock price insurance program as beneficial, yes or no?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Barlow]

Your time is up.

Mr. Yule, on the livestock price insurance, you can submit your answer, unless Paul will let you answer that.

Paul, are you going to let him answer that?

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

I'm going to ask them a question.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Barlow]

Good man. You're great. You have five minutes.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Thank you.

Thank you to all of our witnesses for coming out.

Just for the record, I love sheep, I love bison and I love beef. I love it all. I just wanted to make sure I got that on the record.

On April 28, we had a witness here from Newfoundland, a young beef producer, who told us that he really doesn't have any access, or he has limited access, to public or private insurance options available to protect him from weather events outside of.... There's insurance for market price stability, but that doesn't even cover what he really needs.

I'm going to ask this of all three groups, but we can start with the Bison Association.

What improvements do you think should be made to livestock insurance to assist the industry?

[Scott Yule]

We don't have access to any pricing insurance tools at all, so any step in that direction would be a benefit. We grow a commodity, and the prices go up and down. There are weather events that happen that make it so you have to sell or that distort the market—things like that. Any kind of pricing insurance would be highly beneficial.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

You don't have any public or private insurance that you can access for your livestock.

[Scott Yule]

Not that I'm aware of, no.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

How about the sheep industry?

[Corlena Patterson]

It's the same. We haven't coverage, especially under AgriInsurance, so it is one of our key recommendations to expand the scope of species that can access that.

I think it's important too when considering that to look at the differences in that re-establishment phase, if you have a disaster, especially as it relates to the loss of breeding stock. For example, if you lose a crop, next year is a new crop. If you lose your breeding stock or your genetics because of an environmental disaster, because you had to sell off or because there was simply a drought-forced shortage of feed and you couldn't feed them and had to let them go, rebuilding that genetic base is more than a one-year project. It's a multi-year project to get back and to re-establish your flock or herd after a shock, as such. I think that's important. We don't currently have it.

There was a question earlier, for the previous panel, about private insurance. We had, in our sector, a very specific disease-related private insurance that provided coverage for a number of years. It was not an imminent disease risk, so there wasn't a lot of uptake. We made an effort to get a second round for different disease coverage, and we found, from a private insurer perspective, insuring against livestock diseases was not an easy sell.

I do like the idea. I think there are opportunities to share those risks between public insurance and private insurance, starting with public and topping up with private if need be, but again, it's very difficult to sell to insurance brokers without some sort of support, at least fundamentally, from government programs.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Okay.

I want to give the Cattle Association an opportunity to speak as well.

[Brayden Schmidt]

Thank you for the question and the time.

The beef sector is fortunate to have a few insurance options. I think it's important to keep a suite of options viable for producers because of how different the sectors are in beef. Our biggest ask, when it comes to LPI, would be for the government to introduce cost-shared premiums, as well as to make it a permanent national program and keep awareness around AgriStability, as this definitely helps and aids the larger sectors, such as the feeding sector and the mid- to large-sized operations.

The CCA AGM was also fortunate to have a presentation on whole-farm insurance from AAFC. That is something that piques the interest of the youth, and we look forward to the progress on that as well in times ahead.