Agriculture Committee on Oct. 8th, 2026

[Kelly Higginson, President and CEO, Restaurants Canada]

Thank, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for the opportunity to appear today.

My name is Kelly Higginson. I'm the president and CEO of Restaurants Canada. We represent Canada's food service industry across more than 105,000 restaurant and food service locations, from independent businesses to large national and global operators.

Restaurants are a significant part of Canada's economy and communities. As the country's fourth-largest private sector employer, the restaurant industry directly employs 1.2 million Canadians, with youth making up over 40% of our workforce. It generates $130 billion in annual sales, accounting for 4% of Canada's GDP.

For this committee, I would like to emphasize another part of our economic footprint. Our industry purchases approximately $43 billion in food and beverages every year, including about $30 billion from Canadian farmers, producers and processors.

Restaurants are one of the important ways that Canadian agriculture reaches Canadians. Every day, Canadians make approximately 23.7 million visits to restaurants and other food service establishments. With an average transaction of about $12 per person, restaurants aren't simply a luxury or a special occasion. They are an important source of food and nourishment for millions of Canadians, including seniors, students, busy families, workers, travellers and people for whom preparing a meal at home every day isn't always practical or economical. That's why restaurants need to be a part of Canada's conversation about food security.

Food security does not end at the farm gate. It depends on the entire food chain that gets food from Canadian producers to Canadian consumers, and restaurants are an essential part of that chain. That was the central message of “Feeding Canada Together”, our submission to the federal government's national food security strategy, which we also provided to this committee.

We were encouraged to see that several priorities we identified were reflected in this strategy, including investments in food terminals and hubs, expanding domestic processing, reducing regulatory barriers and strengthening supply chain resilience. We welcome this week's announcement of the $1 billion food-link fund to strengthen food terminals, regional food hubs and distribution infrastructure.

Current trade uncertainty has reinforced the need to build greater domestic capacity, including expanded year-round greenhouse and controlled-environment agriculture. Investments in domestic processing, better transportation, cold chain and distribution infrastructure, and removing unnecessary regulatory barriers can also create more opportunities for Canadian food to reach Canadian restaurants and consumers.

Thank you very much.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Barlow]

Thank you very much for your presentation.

We will now go to our members for their questions. We will start with the Conservatives.

Mr. Albas, you have six minutes, please.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank the committee for having me today.

Ms. Durant, I wanted to talk to you a bit about the NDAs. I notice, since this is a study about food security, that NDAs have been a problem in Quebec, specifically with Alto. The Crown corporation has been hiring evaluators that have specific expertise in agricultural properties. When you sign an NDA, you cannot accept work with anyone else.

Can you comment on the individual case and some of the questionable aspects of this corporation choosing this tactic?

[Erin Durant]

Sure.

I've seen a copy of those documents. I didn't file it today, but if you'd like I could file a copy of that.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

Please do.

[Erin Durant]

Essentially, what's happened is that Alto went to get its agricultural surveyors, which it obviously needs. The terms on which those surveyors are in business with Alto require them to not represent others in the community.

My understanding is that there's not a huge number of agricultural surveyors in the province of Ontario or the province of Quebec. What I'm hearing from the farmers is that the ones they usually use for bank loans and things like that are the ones who've been hired by Alto. There's a concern about who is going to help these people get valuations when the time is done, because there's not a large number of those people.

A related issue is that the first corridor, between Ottawa and Montreal, is very francophone. I can tell you, there are not enough French-speaking expropriation lawyers to help all of these people.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

In regard to the wider use of NDAs, I'm quite concerned that even those charitable organizations that receive support from Alto are thereby limited by what they can say, but I'm more concerned about municipalities. Even the Province of Quebec has signed one. It's my understanding that its Alto agreement can be terminated after 30 days.

The reason I say this is that if there are harms that this project will do to farming.... Obviously, we need to respect provincial jurisdiction, because they have the right to regulate in that area. Do you believe the province should look at this practice and consider whether or not, in public transparency and for food security and in support of farmers, it should look at terminating that NDA?

[Erin Durant]

The Quebec document can be terminated on 30 days' notice. They just have to let them know they're no longer going to co-operate with them. There are two documents in Quebec. One is a co-operation agreement, and one is an NDA, so they're able to get out of it.

My understanding is that there are similar documents with Ontario, although I have not been able to get them and I don't know whether they're still only being negotiated or if they are in a final form.

In terms of the municipalities and the provincial authority over protecting farmland and things like that, this is the type of project that requires a significant amount of provincial and municipal co-operation to make it work. They want to bring this train into the middle of existing cities. They want to do land value capture. What happens is that you need the province and the municipality to, basically, use their MZOs to push it through.

If Quebec really wanted to make this a hard go for the government, unfortunately, it could.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

In some of the videos I've seen online, farmers and property owners are claiming to have been harassed by drones that are trying to do evaluations. Could you comment on the nature of those and what you know?

[Erin Durant]

One of the many places where there hasn't been good communication is around the work that's already happening on the ground.

In the spring, before the consultation was even over, at my house we started getting large survey Xs on the road and planes flying overhead, back and forth. After a whole lot of work, our city councillor was able to figure out that it was Alto. They apologized for not giving a heads-up that this was going to happen and said they would do better going forward and so on.

Unfortunately, over the past couple of months, many people, including me, have had drones flying over their house at night, in the middle of the night. I had it for a week straight. I wrote to Alto to ask what is going on and how long this is going to be happening, and I didn't get a response. I still don't have a response. I wrote them again this morning, hoping I'd have a response before I was here today.

There's a farmer in St. Isidore who actually presented at this very committee last year. She's had it almost every day, for months at a time, at night. She contacts the MP, and she contacts Alto. She tries to get answers. Nobody is giving this poor woman answers. It was so bad on Friday night that she made a video. She was outside with her husband. There were 20 or so drones flying around in a swarm doing something. She had no notice. She had given no permission. She and her kids were terrified.

The lack of any communication is awful.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

Ms. Durant, if the Minister of Transport were in this room with you right now, and you could say one thing in regard to these drones and these activities, what would you tell him?

[Erin Durant]

They need to start taking this seriously.

People have been filing complaints on the Transport Canada drone complaint website. It goes off into the abyss. People feel that they're being spied on and watched.

For me, it was six or seven nights in a row. On the last night, I went outside and was yelling at the thing.

There are farmers who have shot them out of the sky, apparently. One guy was charged.

It's a very serious thing that no one seems to be dealing with. I had to call a former MP last Friday to try to get the attention of somebody at the Department of Transport.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Barlow]

Thank you very much, Ms. Durant. I appreciate it.

We'll now move to the Liberals.

I believe I have Mr. Gobeil for six minutes, please.

[Daniel Gobeil, Liberal, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I will start with Mr. Bastien, but I want to thank all the witnesses for their remarks. It is very interesting.

Let me reassure you, Mr. Bastien: This week, the Liberal government made an important announcement about community infrastructure needs. When there are elements that can help the community, our government makes them a priority.

In terms of transportation, you talked about regions and supply chains. Can you elaborate on your vision for the market? You talked about your vision, but the market isn't there to get the hat trick of tools you need for your structure.

[Thomas Bastien]

Yes. Thank you very much for that.

We certainly followed that announcement with a lot of interest. What we would like to know is whether money is set aside. It's always the same question, because when you share the ecosystem with a lot of other partners, the same ones might always get the money. We don't want that to happen here and once again reinforce some existing oligopoly.

However, there was a very good remark about markets, regional supply in general, and shortening routes. A lot of people think shortening routes has an interesting benefit. First, for farmers, it allows for more conversations with the public. Second, it gives more choice. What we also see a lot is that by shortening the routes, we can offer a better price, for both the agricultural sector and the consumer.

That is essential in this system of non-profit food chains with infrastructure that would make it possible to get closer to both consumers and farmers.

[Daniel Gobeil, Liberal, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Thank you.

I'd like to bring something else to your attention. The government also has a national school food program, which establishes that link. It is definitely run in partnership with the provinces, but I invite you to use it as a model to create a market and close the entire loop in the food chain.

[Thomas Bastien]

I'm going to pick up on that. That's also very interesting. Certainly, the school environment is extremely productive for solidarity organizations, particularly in Quebec, where La Cantine pour tous and the Club des petits déjeuners do remarkable work.

What if we had that same type of infrastructure, but for the military? What if we had the same infrastructure for the prison system? In Quebec, more thought is being given to the health care sector, which does not fall under federal jurisdiction. We're thinking about the possibility of having major contracts with this institutional community, which would help structure an entire ecosystem.

[Daniel Gobeil, Liberal, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Thank you.

We'll look into it and keep an eye on potential markets.

Ms. Sommerauer, thank you for your remarks, which were very interesting. I think your comments were taken into consideration when drafting the new food security policy. You asked for strategic infrastructure funds and the goal is to double the supply of fruits and vegetables. We were talking about $750 million.

The goal is also to simplify the process. I am also a farmer and I would like to hear your thoughts on something. We introduced a bill this week to simplify paperwork relating to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and other agencies. I want to hear your thoughts on measures to further simplify the structure.

[Shannon Sommerauer]

Thank you for that.

Yes, I will say we've been happy with the government's efforts thus far in terms of the red tape reduction. There was actually, about a year ago, a bill that was passed. It was an omnibus regulatory package that did alleviate a significant number of labelling irritants for the fresh produce sector, which has been a long-standing issue for us. We were certainly very happy to see that.

For us—and it goes back to my remarks, and I know the previous panel spoke about this as well—it's really a whole-of-government effort. Oftentimes, when we come to the Hill as agriculture groups, we meet with CFIA and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, but the impacts for our sector extend well beyond that, such as to engaging with CBSA, with Environment and Climate Change Canada, and with Transport Canada. All these other departments also have a very large impact on the food sector.

What we've been calling for is a whole-of-government approach and shared departmental ownership to make sure that when we're looking at the regulatory frameworks, when we're making regulatory changes in one area, we do think about food, because not all the departments are used to doing that. It's not part of their regular mandate, but it can have significant impacts.

[Daniel Gobeil, Liberal, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

I'm going to switch gears and turn to the Restaurants Canada representative.

Ms. Higginson, thank you for your remarks and the beautiful, bilingual and very accessible document you submitted. You commend the Canadian government's efforts. You talk about Restaurants Canada's role at the table. How do you see your role in helping us improve distribution and affordability and be more present as an essential link?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Barlow]

Ms. Higginson, I know this is tough, but the parliamentary secretary is over his time. Could you answer that as succinctly as you can? I know I'm asking a lot of you here.

You can also submit your response in writing to the committee.

[Kelly Higginson]

Sure.

In our document, I think we've highlighted a few of the areas where we see the Canadian government...including in the food security submission for sure. Maybe that would be the best place to start, so that it isn't a rushed answer. Maybe that's the best answer at this point.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Barlow]

That is the best answer I've heard today.

[Kelly Higginson]

I'm not sure about timing.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Barlow]

Thank you very much, Ms. Higginson. I appreciate that.