Thank you, Mr. Chair and ladies and gentlemen of the committee. I am Keith Currie, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.
The Ontario Federation of Agriculture represents the interests of 38,000 Ontario farm family businesses. I'd like to welcome everyone here during our Ontario Agriculture Week.
As part of the agri-food value chain, our farmers are a significant part of Ontario's largest industry, encompassing farm inputs, food and fibre production, food processing and distribution. The government's own 2017 report, “Unleashing the Growth Potential of Key Sectors”, which we have come to know as the Barton report, clearly indicated that the agri-food sector is capable of tremendous growth to create jobs and drive the Ontario and Canadian economies.
In our pre-budget submission filed in August of this year, we outlined how the federal government could ensure Canada's competitiveness through prudent investments in rural Canada. We referred to the agri-food sector as our “economic powerhouse”. We outlined important recommendations to unleash the growth potential of rural communities through infrastructure investment in natural gas expansion, broadband access and improved transportation infrastructure. We spoke of improving tax and trade competitiveness, and the critical need to address labour shortages in terms of skills and numbers of workers available. This seems to be a recurring theme.
The OFA urges the committee to carefully review and act on those recommendations. However, ladies and gentlemen, I am here today to speak of a fundamental shortcoming in the relationship between the federal government and our farm businesses. This shortcoming will severely dampen the economic potential of our farms and our rural economy. This shortcoming is the apparent refusal of the federal government to protect the real contribution and future potential of the agri-food sector in this country.
This has most recently been manifested in the new USMCA trade deal, in which our dairy, poultry and eggs sector was sacrificed for the sake of a deal. We readily acknowledge how important a new NAFTA is for all sectors that trade within North America, but make no mistake: The constant chipping away at agriculture production will seriously damage the ability of the farm and agri-food sector to thrive in Canada.
What's done is done, I suppose. Now we can only insist that the Government of Canada compensate those farm businesses that will suffer economic loss so that other sectors can survive. For those agri-food sectors relying on North American trade, the USMCA signals a certain level of security in knowing that markets will remain open with our two important trading partners. However, for livestock and grains, the quality of those markets has been severely shaken by the United States-led tariff war. The USMCA is critical, because the North American markets for grains and livestock are completely integrated across these three partners. For that reason, when the U.S. engages in tariff wars that depress its own market prices, Canadian farmers suffer equally.
The damage to farmers has been recognized as the need for a $12-billion level of support for American farmers. Even so, it is said to be not nearly enough to compensate for the damage done. Yet in Canada, our federal minister says that the current risk management programs are adequate to overcome this unprecedented and devastating market interruption.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is simply not the case. I am here today to tell you that Canadian farmers and our agri-food system can drive our economy to new heights while providing safe and affordable food to Canadians, but we cannot do this without our federal government stepping up to help us overcome serious market damage caused by political whim and bluster. If Canada cannot negotiate an end to this damaging tariff war—and we believe we cannot—then Canada needs to step up and match the support our competitors are receiving so that we can survive long enough to create jobs and grow the economy once markets return to normal.
We do thank the committee for their time and consideration.