Agriculture Committee on June 4th, 2026

[Christian Bibeau]

The Canadian government offers a 100% tax benefit to a producer for a protein, animal or food donation. In Quebec, the tax deduction is 150% under certain conditions. Adopting the same measure across Canada would certainly make it possible to promote donation, combat food waste and help feed our communities.

[The Chair, Liberal, Michael Coteau]

Thank you very much. Thank you for your patience.

Folks, what time is the vote?

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

It's in 16 minutes. Can we ask questions?

[The Chair, Liberal, Michael Coteau]

If we have 16 minutes, why don't we do the first round? We'll do five, five and five. Is that okay?

Let's do the first round. My hope is to suspend while we vote and then come back and finish, using the last 14 minutes, hopefully.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Is that for drafting or questions?

[The Chair, Liberal, Michael Coteau]

It's for questions. We'll push the drafting to next week.

We go now to Mr. Epp for five minutes.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses.

I will give the blame to the P.E.I. Potato Board for installing the earworm into my head “ketchup loves potatoes”. I'm off to the World Processing Tomato Congress this weekend. Your involvement with the World Potato Congress is very important in putting Canada's place in the world....

You talked about the importance of trading arrangements domestically and internationally. What happens if Canada doesn't get a deal at CUSMA? One hundred and sixty ag groups from across three countries have emphasized the importance of that trade deal. Can you talk about the importance to P.E.I?

[Greg Donald, General Manager, Prince Edward Island Potato Board]

Most certainly.

Thank you very much, by the way, for the opportunity today.

For our business, our fresh business in particular, half is in Canada and the other half is in the U.S. That's a significant portion of our fresh business. If I combine our frozen processed business that goes to the U.S., it would represent about half of our production. We are in the process of gaining access to the Mexican market as well so, to say the least, a trade deal that will ensure uninterrupted business with both of those partners is essential.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Thank you.

P.E.I. was historically a large seed potato exporter, yet the data shows that P.E.I. is now a net seed potato importer. Has the minister met yet with the seed potato industry?

Where is P.E.I. from a seed potato export perspective?

[Greg Donald]

We've had had several meetings with the federal minister. He's my member of Parliament as well and obviously the minister. Seed is still is about 8% of our.... Historically it's about 10% of our production on P.E.I. Most of that production stays right here in P.E.I. To this point, there hasn't been any change in the ministerial order that would allow seed potatoes to leave P.E.I.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

You talked about how P.E.I.'s farm incomes fell dramatically last year. Obviously, drought was a part of that. What are the other factors going on there? There are input costs, I assume, and also the importance of BRM programming.

[Greg Donald]

Absolutely, yes. With the drought last year, for many farms their yield was down 30% or 40%. There was uncertainty around tariffs, costs, labour and the list goes on. That was reflected in, I think, overall farm net incomes, which were down 30%. It was a disaster last season.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

This study is particularly on food security, and a part of that is food input security. P.E.I. is an island. Three major inputs from a fertilizer perspective are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. That's the same for agriculture across Canada. Where do P.E.I.'s nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium come from?

[Greg Donald]

Krista might know specifically. I used to be in that business. These days I'm not an expert, but the vast majority of our fertilizer comes in on vessels, on ships, obviously because of where we're located and essentially from all over the world. Any changes in that supply or tariffs significantly impact our costs here in Prince Edward Island and, quite frankly, I think, right across the country.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Yes, you're absolutely correct. Canada should be a net nitrogen exporter, yet we're a net nitrogen importer, particularly in eastern Canada. Obviously now we're starting to use Saskatchewan potash because we're the world's largest exporter of potash, yet historically that's come from overseas because of our lack of east-west transportation infrastructure.

What I want to particularly focus on is phosphorus. Going ahead, in terms of input security, the world's phosphorus sources—Florida, Morocco, Jordan and Saudi Arabia—are not, particularly now, the most stable places for that to come from. What would be your comments, particularly on phosphorus?

[Greg Donald]

Yes, we're very concerned about the cost of that product going forward. You didn't mention it, but sulphur is a critical component in the manufacturing of diammonium phosphate, and I believe what's going on in the Middle East is having a significant impact on that ingredient.

We're very concerned about nitrogen, but I think we need to be every bit as concerned not only about the price but the supply of phosphorus.

[The Chair, Liberal, Michael Coteau]

Thank you so much.

I'm going to go now to the Liberals for five minutes.

Go ahead, Mr. Connors.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Thank you.

Thank you to all the witnesses for coming out today. I want to start with the Community Food Sharing Association.

We're studying food security. What would be your definition of food security?

[Tina Bishop]

Food security is not necessarily always about food. There are a number of things. Income is basically the root of food insecurity in our province. People just don't have the resources to be able to purchase the food they need. We're seeing income levels at low rates, increased housing costs in our province and increased food costs, and that's all related to the number of people who are having to visit food banks in our province.

Last year, we had 185,000 visits to food banks throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. That's a number of rising demand that we've never seen in the history of food banking in Newfoundland and Labrador.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

We just heard another witness talk about food waste.

What is the situation in Newfoundland and Labrador concerning food waste, and do you think there are ways that it could be improved?

[Tina Bishop]

Food waste in Newfoundland and Labrador is certainly a concern for us. We try to do as much recovery of food as possible. We work with partners throughout the province, local grocery stores, retailers and farmers, to be able to recover as much product as we can. If we had the resources to be able to store that product and take those perishable items that are getting too close to their expiry dates, we could take that food and then transform it into other foods and other products that could be used for food banks throughout Newfoundland and Labrador.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Do you know of any limitations that would stop you from being able to do that?

[Tina Bishop]

The only limitation we have right now is our facility. The facility that we have is just not suitable. We don't have the space. We don't have the freezer space or cooler space, and we don't have the commercial kitchen that would be required to be able to do that kind of work.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

You distribute all across Newfoundland and Labrador. It's a vast area that you distribute to. You mentioned it in your opening remarks.

Could you give us a little bit more detail on what goes out and to how many communities?

[Tina Bishop]

We have food banks strategically placed throughout Newfoundland and Labrador, right from St. John's out to Port aux Basques, up the northern peninsula and all the way into Labrador.

We have a very large geographical area that we serve with 60 food banks in total serving numerous communities throughout the province. We still have some areas that are underserved. We'd like to be able to offer food bank services in those communities, and that's something that we're continuously working on.

One of our plans is to have a mobile food bank to be able to get into some of these smaller communities so that people can access the food they need.