Agriculture Committee on Oct. 6th, 2026

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Barlow]

I call this meeting to order.

We had to make some adjustments to the witness list. We had a couple of cancellations, so we've shuffled some things around. To our benefit, this gives us more time with the witnesses we have with us today. We've had to move Mr. Lee, I believe, to the second hour, so that may change some things a little.

Thank you to the witnesses who have joined us here today.

I will get to the introductions in a moment. Before I do that, it behooves me to welcome the new members of the agriculture committee.

Daniel, welcome. Congratulations on the position of parliamentary secretary. We look forward to working with you.

We also have Sean. Mr. Casey is joining us as a new permanent member. Our newest returner is Tim. He is sort of back, and we'll see how long he wants to spend with us. It's good to see him back. Mr. Perron is with us today. This is great. The all-star team is available. He is now a permanent member. Mr. Bonk is also now a permanent member of the committee. It's a great group of people. We all work very well together, so I look forward to working with this group.

Unfortunately, our chair couldn't be with us today, but I'm happy to preside over this meeting.

Welcome to our meeting of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food.

For today's meeting, there are some housekeeping messages for our witnesses.

This meeting is taking place in a hybrid format pursuant to the Standing Orders. Members are attending in person in the room and remotely on Zoom.

Before I continue, I ask that all in-person participants consult the guidelines and remember about your earpieces being as far away from the microphone as possible to protect our interpreters.

For all witnesses who are with us today, please wait until I recognize you by name to ensure that you are asked questions directly by members, or asked to give your opening comments.

For those participating by video conference, click on the microphone icon to activate your mic, and please mute yourself when you are not speaking.

Ms. Beardsley, I know you've been with us before, but at the bottom of your screen, you can select the appropriate language channel you prefer: floor, English or French.

For those in the room, most of you know about the earpieces.

Daniel, I think you're probably getting pretty used to everything around here now.

I would like to remind witnesses that committee members might ask questions in either English or French. If you need interpretation, or if you're having an issue with your earpiece, please let us know. We want to make sure that you understand the question and can provide a good answer. I remind you that all comments are to be addressed through the chair.

Members, we have a speaking list, so I think we're all good to go.

Now I would like to introduce the opening panel with us today as we continue the study on food security in the face of global instability.

We have the chair and vice-chair of the Dairy Farmers of New Brunswick. Mr. Dijkstra is the chair and Mr. Matheson is the vice-chair. From Food Banks Canada, we have Ms. Beardsley, the chief executive officer, via video conference.

Welcome, and thank you very much for being with us. Each of you will be given up to five minutes for your opening statements. Afterwards, there will be questions from members of the committee.

We'll start with the Dairy Farmers of New Brunswick.

You have five minutes. Please go ahead.

[Wietze Dykstra, Chair, Dairy Farmers of New Brunswick]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My name is Wietze Dykstra. I'll do a short introduction, as you did already, but I'm the current chair of the Dairy Farmers of New Brunswick. I operate a dairy farm, milking about 170 cows, with my family, in western New Brunswick. I am joined today, as you already mentioned, by Gilbert Matheson, who is also a member of the board at the Dairy Farmers of Canada and a fellow farmer from New Brunswick. Thank you for inviting us to contribute the dairy farmers' perspective to this important study on food security.

At a time of significant economic and geopolitical uncertainty, strengthening the security and resilience of Canada's food supply has never been more important. Canada's dairy sector is a critical part of this food supply. Dairy farmers appreciate the government's effort to advance Canada's national food security strategy, and welcome its recognition that our system of supply management is fundamental to Canada's self-sufficient for dairy, ag and poultry products at stable prices, contributing to Canada's rural vitality and food sovereignty.

As the food security strategy suggests, supply management is a key component of Canada's national food security. It is, therefore, vital that government maintains its commitment to keep supply management and any dairy concessions off the table in international trade negotiations, including those with the U.S.

We are here today as dairy farmers who are proud to contribute to Canada's domestic food supply. Today, we are asking that the government investigate opportunities to invest in dairy processing infrastructure and to remove barriers for small to medium processors in rural areas. Furthermore, we encourage government to consider support for new start-ups navigating processing regulations.

I will now pass it over to Gilbert to expand on these requests.

[Gilbert Matheson, Vice Chair, Dairy Farmers of New Brunswick]

Thank you.

I would like to highlight dairy farmers' support for several other important elements of the strategy.

Dairy farmers strongly support the strategy's objective to process more food domestically. In the dairy sector, much of our processing infrastructure across the country is more than 50 years old. Modern ingredient plants could make a wide range of products to meet our customers' evolving needs. Unfortunately, the costs associated with building or upgrading a dairy processing facility are extremely high.

The maritime provinces have limitations to processing capacity. The lack of urban centres creates distribution challenges that limit small and medium-scale dairy processing. As a result, a significant portion of the region's milk must be transported out of the region for processing.

To help overcome these challenges, we recommend that the government investigate programs that encourage rural regions to develop multitenant regional dairy processing hubs. Common infrastructure could support milk receiving, pasteurization, refrigeration and distribution. Product-specific modules could be added or removed by local processors and entrepreneurs. Such a model could lower barriers to entry, support locally produced dairy products and create additional opportunities to process more of the region's milk closer to where it's produced.

It goes without saying that any government funding for value-added processing more broadly could help stimulate the necessary investment which will help the industry for the future and bolster Canadian food security.

In addition to its focus on domestic processing, we also appreciate the strategy's commitment to accelerating approvals for seeds, fertilizers, feed, and veterinary biologics. Canada faces a shortage of such products compared to its competitors, and dairy farmers are eager to continue working with government and other stakeholders to improve access to these critical inputs.

Finally, while dairy farmers appreciate the introduction of immediate expensing for manufacturing and processing buildings, we strongly encourage government to expand this to all agricultural buildings. Removing tax-related barriers will enable farmers to modernize operations, adapt innovative technologies, adapt to changing requirements and consumer expectations, and scale production to meet growing demand.

Canada has farmers, processors, resources and expertise needed to maintain a resilient domestic food system. Protecting our production capacity is not only an agricultural priority; it's an investment in Canada's long-term economic resilience and food security.

In closing, we would like to recognize the important perspective of our food bank colleagues appearing before the committee today. In New Brunswick, dairy farmers are proud to partner with Feed New Brunswick to support people in our communities. Food security requires all parts of our food system to work together.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Barlow]

Thank you very much. You're right on time. Well done. You got Ms. Beardsley off to a good start, with a good smile.

Now we'll turn it over to Ms. Beardsley from Food Banks Canada, please, for five minutes.

[Kirstin Beardsley, Chief Executive Officer, Food Banks Canada]

Thank you, Chair and members of the committee.

My name is Kirstin Beardsley. I'm the chief executive officer of Food Banks Canada. I represent a network of more than 5,500 food banks, in every province and territory.

Today, one in four Canadians experiences food insecurity, and nearly 2.2 million people turn to a food bank every month. Our polling found that 43% of Canadians reported financial stress this July, with food costs as the largest driver. Global instability did not create this crisis, but it is accelerating it. Climate disasters, global conflict and trade instability with our largest trading partner are reminders that external shocks move quickly through the supply chains and onto Canadian grocery bills.

The central challenge is not that Canada lacks food, producers or demand. It is that we do not have enough coordinated infrastructure to process, store and move Canadian food from regions with surplus to communities facing shortages. As a result, food grown here is often processed elsewhere. Usable surplus is lost and remote northern, coastal and indigenous communities pay disproportionately more. Food infrastructure is therefore a question of national resilience as well as affordability.

Households and individual food banks cannot control these global pressures. What Canada can control is whether our food system has enough capacity to absorb disruptions before they reach the plate. What Canada needs is a coordinated national network that can recover more domestic food, add processing and cold storage capacity and move supply efficiently between regions. Such a network would reduce food waste, strengthen regional resilience and help prevent disruptions from becoming empty shelves or unaffordable food.

Food Banks Canada welcomes the national food security strategy and its $3.2 billion in investments, particularly its recognition of food hubs, including community food infrastructure as core infrastructure.

The good news is that this coordinated national network already exists. Food banks already function as essential infrastructure within Canada's food system. We purchase, recover, store, process and transport food nationally. More than a quarter of what we distribute is now purchased rather than donated. Across the food bank network, nearly $400 million in capital projects are planned or under way.

Food Banks Canada invested $24 million last year, close to $6 million in refrigeration in food banks since 2022 and nearly $9 million more in northern infrastructure, the same regions where a trucking disruption or price spike hits the hardest and fastest. A major strength of the food bank network lies within its established links to rural, remote and northern communities. In a country as large as Canada, reducing costs can come in large part through creating efficient supply chains to get food into the most remote areas.

The Leamington Regional Food Hub and Harvest Manitoba show this model working in practice. In Atlantic Canada, a pilot distribution model has already achieved lower landed food costs than individual organizations could achieve alone. These are not proposals built on hope. They are extensions of infrastructure that the food bank network has already proven can work.

In our pre-budget submission, Food Banks Canada asked the government to dedicate up to $5 million of the food-link fund to closing these infrastructure gaps in the food bank network. The investment would build a hub and spoke network of large regional hubs connected to smaller satellite hubs, creating shared capacity to recover, process, store and transport food across regions, instead of duplicating small-scale capacity.

Our sector has shovel-ready proposals in Ontario, British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec and Atlantic Canada. Each addresses a distinct regional gap: for example, among others, recovery capacity in southwestern Ontario; cold chain infrastructure in Quebec's Montérégie and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean regions; and a permanent distribution hub anchoring Atlantic Canada's food bank network.

Food banks bring national reach into every community, including those that are hardest to serve; established logistics relationships across rail, trucking and air; and a data-backed equity model that routes food where the need is highest, not simply to where storage capacity already exists.

Canada has the food, the producers and the demand. What it lacks is enough coordinated infrastructure to process, store and move food where it's needed before global disruptions reach Canadian plates. Food banks already have the national reach, the logistics, relationships, expertise and the shovel-ready projects to close that gap. With federal investment through the food-link fund, we are ready to build that resilience now.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Barlow]

Thank you very much, Ms. Beardsley, and thank you for your time.

Colleagues, before we go to the questions, we have a bit of housekeeping to deal with. We can leave it until the end of the second hour or we can do it at the end of this hour, and then we may finish a bit early in the second hour. Is there any preference on when we do it? It would take about five minutes.

Do you want to leave it to the very end?

[Marianne Dandurand, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Yes, leave it to the very end.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Barlow]

That's perfect.

We will carry on. We now have the Conservatives for six minutes.

Mr. Bragdon, please go ahead.

[Richard Bragdon, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's good to be here today.

Thank you to our witnesses who shared their testimony today. It's always good to welcome fellow New Brunswickers here to the nation's capital. We know these gentlemen quite well.

Thank you for the great work you do in providing food security, much-needed food security, for our people and our citizens.

Mr. Dijkstra, I'd like to address my first question to you today. It's in regard to the soaring input costs that farmers are facing across the country. Obviously, we know that fuel costs are a big consideration for every farm and every farmer. The price of diesel is impacting everything that's being trucked and shipped, and of course in the production of food.

I'll start with you, but perhaps both of you could weigh in on the effects of soaring diesel costs, and what that looks like this year in comparison with previous years.

[Wietze Dykstra]

Where do I start?

In our supply management, we cannot increase the price of our commodities—only once a year—so for now we have to eat those costs. I run a fairly large operation. If I had a $4,000 diesel cost for the month of September last year, it would be $8,000 now. That comes off my bottom line. It's a big cost for us, yes, but for the time being, we cannot pass it on to the consumer.

[Richard Bragdon, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Wow. You as producers are eating that additional cost. It's coming out of your bottom line every year. Year over year, on fuel cost alone, are you looking at double the cost this year as compared with other years?

[Wietze Dykstra]

I would say it's at least double the cost. That's correct. Yes.

[Richard Bragdon, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Wow.

Is it the same for you, Mr. Matheson?

[Gilbert Matheson]

Yes. I mean, my operations are fairly broad. There are various commodities. If I think of every bit of product that comes in, with grains in and product out, yes, in operations it's easily double. We certainly are feeling the pinch of that. We run quite a lag in agriculture, of course. Some of our products would be based on just what the market will give us. Some of them are fixed a little bit more, for example, in eggs and dairy, but still there's usually a year lag to receive those increases.

[Richard Bragdon, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

In your estimation, at this point do these types of soaring input costs put some dairy farmers and dairy farms in New Brunswick at risk—i.e., as a factor for operations or consideration for future growth, or whether they make a decision regarding their farms?

[Gilbert Matheson]

I think everybody's feeling it a little bit more. They're making decisions on where they allocate their funds, certainly, as a result of that.

[Richard Bragdon, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Let me ask you this. I know there's a lot of uncertainty as it relates to the trade agreements and what's happening around tariffs. Obviously, there's the uncertainty around CUSMA. From your perspective as New Brunswick dairy farmers, in relation to those concerns, do you feel that the government could be doing better, or should be, to make sure that you as farmers are informed? What are some areas you're hearing about from your producers that definitely need to be prioritized right now as it relates to that?

I'll start with you, Mr. Dijkstra.

[Wietze Dykstra]

As I said in my opening remarks, trade has always been an issue. We do not want any more concessions from the government. Bill C-202 spoke to that. Supply management should be off the table. We do have to deal with the fact that there is a president south of the border who has supply management in the crosshairs. We trust that the government will do its best to look out for us.

[Richard Bragdon, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

As a follow-up to that, Mr. Dijkstra, there's been a lot of talk around agreements with the EU, or potential future agreements. We know there are some existing agreements that weren't fully implemented with the EU. Do U.S. dairy farmers have concerns around any type of agreements or future agreements that there may be with the EU that you've discussed?

[Wietze Dykstra]

Supply management is based on three facts: import controls, supply and demand. When any of those tools get distorted, it creates an issue for us. The biggest problem is uncertainty for farmers. It's just like any business. Do you want to invest in a new barn? Do you want to invest in new machinery? Do you want to invest in this in an uncertain climate? That's the big problem that we have to deal with.

As we all know, we live in uncertain times right now, but that's the same for any business, for that matter. Any business is kind of hesitant to invest major amounts of money if the future is not certain.

[Richard Bragdon, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Dijkstra.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Barlow]

Thank you very much, Mr. Bragdon. I appreciate your relinquishing some of your time. Maybe we'll pass that on to someone else later on.

I will now move to the Liberals with Mr. MacDonald for six minutes, please.

[Kent MacDonald, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the witnesses.

Welcome to two fellow dairy farmers from New Brunswick.

I'm going to start with Ms. Beardsley.

Ms. Beardsley, in the national food security strategy, we made an immediate announcement of $20 million in direct funding. Obviously, this was emergency funding to help with the transition right now in providing your services across the country.

We certainly don't want to become dependent on food banks. Do you see anything in the national food strategy that's going to help us down the road to have lower retail grocery prices for consumers and those people who are most vulnerable to high grocery prices?

[Kirstin Beardsley]

Certainly the local food infrastructure fund is meant to be a support, as these times are critical. Food banks have seen a doubling of food bank use since 2019, so community organizations are having to serve twice as many folks through their doors than we used to. We are, as I said, very supportive of the national food security strategy. We know there needs to be investment in domestic supply and production.

From our perspective, we see that in order to address the underlying causes of food insecurity, it really is an income problem, and so we advocate for policies like EI reform or a study of provincial social assistance rates. We need to make sure that folks have the incomes they need to be able to afford food. In the meantime, food banks are being asked to double the amount of support that we provide, and that requires investments in infrastructure in order for us to be able to move the amount of food needed to serve folks in need across the country.

[Kent MacDonald, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Just this week we announced $1 billion for the new food-link fund, to help build food hubs and infrastructure in those areas that may have gaps. I come from the province of Prince Edward Island. Atlantic Canada has gaps in cold storage and infrastructure to distribute food. It was there 40 years ago, but it's not there anymore. We now rely on distribution from areas like Montreal and Toronto.

Do you feel that the food-link funding is going to help create local markets for producers as well as small independent retailers to be in the food chain?