Agriculture Committee on Oct. 6th, 2026

[Kirstin Beardsley]

The food-link fund is going to be critically important. Certainly from our perspective, we see the investment in infrastructure as critical. We also feel the lack of cold storage because we access cold storage, of course, to move food across the country and for processing capacity within the country. We receive a lot of donations from the manufacturing industry. We see a view of the supply chain that allows us to understand where there are gaps.

It's different from a commercial perspective, but we want to be good partners. We want to make sure that industry is built up alongside the community infrastructure. We're very pleased that the food-link fund will have eligibility for food banks to build the infrastructure that we need to serve the folks who we serve.

[Kent MacDonald, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Thank you.

I'll go now to the Dairy Farmers of New Brunswick.

You've caught your breath. Are you ready for some more questions?

[Wietze Dykstra]

I guess so.

[Kent MacDonald, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

I've spent my life as a dairy farmer as well, working within the supply-managed system. We also raised beef, and it's on the open market system. I'm not advocating for one or the other, but are there lessons that we learned in the dairy industry that would help across the country in establishing food security for Canadians?

I'm thinking in particular of the geopolitical situation we're in now. We have two conflicts or wars going on that are affecting input costs for agriculture. They're not affecting food supply yet, but could. It's not something that's unimaginable. I just wonder about your viewpoints on that, whoever wants to speak to it.

[Wietze Dykstra]

I can start. We can tag-team.

We learned with the COVID pandemic when there was a shortage of vaccines that the countries that have lots will look after themselves first, and then they will look after the country that was asking for the vaccine. With supply management and dairy, poultry and eggs, we have our market established in Canada. We know our demand, and we match that with the supply, so we will never have an issue with a shortage of a product if we have supply management in Canada.

In my opinion, that's very important for food sovereignty, because if we give it up, it's all fine as long as there's enough food in the world. However, if there is ever a shortage on something and we cannot produce it, and we are dependent on a different country to produce it for us, we might not get it.

[Kent MacDonald, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

To add to that, the dairy industry has been very quick to pivot when the situation requires it. During COVID, the consumption of dairy products went up because people were staying home more. We met the challenge of the marketplace. Now we have to pivot to protein. It's the new craze. Again, we're meeting the challenge of the marketplace. Those things are positive.

The one thing the protein challenge brings up, though, is that we don't have enough processing capacity regionally in Atlantic Canada.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Barlow]

I'm sorry, Mr. MacDonald. You're well past your time. I gave you a bit of leeway. I gave you a bit of Richard's 30 seconds.

[Kent MacDonald, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Six minutes isn't very long.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Barlow]

You can bring up protein and processing in another round of questions.

Mr. Perron, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for joining us.

My question is for the Dairy Farmers of New Brunswick.

I'm glad to hear you talk about supply management. I am especially pleased to hear you—

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Barlow]

I've stopped the clock. We'll let Mr. Dijkstra get his earpiece on.

[Wietze Dykstra]

I'm not very smart.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Barlow]

No. You are one of many who have struggled with this, including members of Parliament.

Mr. Dijkstra, can you make sure that your translation is coming in as well from French to English?

Mr. Perron, maybe you can say a few words.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Can you hear me? Yes. Perfect.

Thank you to the interpreters for the great work they do every day. I want to take the opportunity to say that.

Let's start the clock again, Mr. Chair.

To the representatives of the Dairy Farmers of New Brunswick, I'm very pleased to hear you talk about the importance of supply management. Mr. Dijkstra, I particularly liked your last comments when you said that, as long as we have supply management, regardless of the disruptions happening elsewhere, there would never be a problem here. I'm not the only one here happy to hear that. I can see those who worked with us on the famous legislation on this subject, which has since been passed, smile at this. We are pleased that this legislation exists. In the current context, we can't know what would have happened otherwise, but I seriously wonder.

However, the negotiations with the U.S. at the end of the summer raised some concerns. There were rumours. I don't know how well founded they were, other people around the table may be better informed than I am. The rumours were that changes would be accepted in the allocation of import quotas. Currently, they are primarily allocated to processors and they would be transferred to distributors. We at the Bloc Québécois were very concerned about that, because we thought it would increase the impact on our producers.

I'd like to hear you on that. How concerned are you about a change like this? It is outside the law we passed, so it doesn't affect this law, but is still a somewhat roundabout way of affecting producers' standard of living.

[Gilbert Matheson]

In particular, TRQs would have an effect if they were allocated differently. Currently, I think they're mostly with the processors. Some are with retail. The concern we would have as farmers is that if they were allocated more to the retail side, it could be disruptive to our market in particular. I think that would be our biggest concern.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

If I understand you correctly—and tell me if I'm going too far—you would strongly recommend the government never touch this allocation. In any case, this is a decision that is entirely within Canada's sovereignty. We agree?

[Gilbert Matheson]

We would agree with that.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

That's good.

Now I'd like to talk about milk proteins. My colleague Mr. MacDonald talked about this a few minutes ago.

We know there is a great need for protein, for sports supplements, among other things. Whey is also in high demand. Not enough is being produced locally. A certain amount is imported.

That could be an interesting niche for milk producers in New Brunswick and Canada in general to develop. Is that being explored? Do you think it could be relevant to increase production?

[Wietze Dykstra]

Go ahead, Mr. Matheson.

[Gilbert Matheson]

We're currently working to increase production. Increasing production is not simple because you also have cows that produce butter fat, so you need to make sure you have room for all your components. We work very hard on the farm and also with the Dairy Farmers of Canada and on the New Brunswick side to send signals to producers that we need more protein. That way, the financial incentive is there for the producer to make that. We will get there, but it will take a little bit of time to fill those markets.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Do you want to add anything, Mr. Dijkstra?

[Wietze Dykstra]

The problem is that the cow does not do the same thing that the consumer wants us to do in one or two years. We had a large demand for butter fat, so we have bred cows to give us butter fat. Now the consumers in the last two or three years want protein. That's great for us, except my cows have not listened to me that I have to give more protein. It's very hard to breed for more protein on short notice.

As Gilbert was saying, we will get there, but it will take a little bit of time. In the meantime, we're doing everything we can to fill the protein market because it's good for everybody, and we will fill it.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Thank you for that. That is very important.

In general, I think the government may be somewhat overlooking agri-food processing and agriculture, and forgetting their importance in the economy. This is particularly the case for agri-food processing. Previous studies have shown significant underinvestment in our processing plants. I'm afraid that, at some point, we'll be too far behind. In your opening remarks, you talked about the need to invest or to facilitate investments.

If you had one or two proposals to make to the committee in that regard, so that we could pass them on to the government, what would they be?

[Gilbert Matheson]

I believe that investments have been slower coming. I think a lot can be attributed to some of the economic uncertainty through different trade concessions over the last, say, 10 years. You have concessions made, and that's slowed down the investment, certainly; however, as we mentioned in our opening remarks, there are some things the government has done to help with that, but I think there's some more that can be done there.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Barlow]

Thank you very much. We appreciate that.

We'll now go to Mr. Gourde for five minutes, please.