Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
From potato farmers using technology to adapt to climate change to the rise of AI in food processing, research and innovation have brought the agri-food sector to new heights. I know that the chair has some familiarity with agricultural innovation, but agri-food research has also had a direct impact on many of the constituencies represented on this committee. For example, Mr. Fragiskatos's riding includes AAFC's London research and development centre. Mr. Cumming's riding includes the Alberta Prion Research Institute. The research laboratory in applied science in food is located in Laval, in Madam Koutrakis's riding. Still other regions, such as the Northwest Territories—Mr. McLeod's riding—are benefiting from advancements in modular greenhouse technology, allowing increased agricultural production.
The Agri-food Innovation Council has been an advocate for agri-food research and innovation since 1920. It is supported solely by Canadian organizations.
We are encouraged to see that one focus of this pre-budget consultation is the climate emergency. It enables us to make two key points. One, while the agricultural sector is often identified as one of the emitters of greenhouse gases, it should also be viewed as part of the solution. Indeed, the positive role played by agriculture in carbon sequestration is not recognized sufficiently. This should change. It is easy to blame farm production but challenging to recognize the positive actions that farmers are taking. Two, research is revolutionizing agriculture and food production. Increasingly, food produced in Canada utilizes fewer resources, emits less carbon and has greater nutritional value.
We also need to recognize that the return on investment for agri-food research remains very high. This information doesn't come from us. Rather, it comes from a presentation done by Dr. Bonti-Ankomah, an economist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Second, I would like to remind you of the report from the federal government's advisory council on economic growth, which recognizes agri-food as one of the key drivers for economic progress in Canada.
For this brief, we consulted our members from across the whole country.
Dr. Malcolm Campbell, vice-president of research at the University of Guelph, says that Canada will be the global leader in the agri-food economy when it taps into its vast and diverse agri-food assets—an incredible talent pool, world-class research, and globally impactful innovation and food production and processing that are the envy of many nations. He says that to Canada’s immense benefit, those assets do not live in one geographic region but are resident right across the country. In keeping with this, investments in the Canadian agri-food sector must embrace this powerful national diversity, leveraging capacity that exists from coast to coast to coast, catalyzing partnerships, creating greater vertical integration and amplifying innovation that resides nationwide.
There are a few issues to consider as you plan for the 2020 budget. Dr. Webb from the Global Institute for Food Security suggests that funding must be targeted to cross-sectional programs in which key agricultural innovation can be leveraged horizontally to integrate with other industry verticals, particularly health, manufacturing and the environment. Dr. Webb says that the finance committee should therefore focus on initiatives that support cross-sectional technological innovation to link value in the agricultural sector with value at the level of population health and well-being, industrial sustainability and environmental protection, particularly measures to mitigate and reverse the effects of climate change.
Short-term granting cycles do not work. The government should develop long-term investments in such areas as plant breeding. This recommendation comes from Dr. Tania Humphrey, vice-president of research and development at Vineland, a very successful research centre in Ontario.
We would recommend, as per Dr. Campbell's suggestion, that the universities be provided with the resources to realize strong agri-food research and innovation outcomes. We also believe that steps should be taken to make existing programming more flexible and to accommodate more than just traditional partnerships between industry and academia. Different partners, such as the private sector, early adopter producers, and industry consortia from within and outside the sector should be incentivized to work together. While we recognize fiscal restraints, we would like to emphasize, as the Saskatchewan Wheat Commission has stated, that tremendous opportunity for Canada comes with increased funding levels, given the return on investment from agri-food research and innovation.
With targeted and strategic support, the impact of agricultural innovations can be felt on a greater scale. These made-in-Canada technologies also have the added benefit of increasing international trade. A report by the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry referred to this as “untapped potential”, and advocated for changes to support the innovation, growth and competitiveness of the value-added sector. Increasing government support and incentivising all parts of the research continuum, from fundamental research to the adoption by end-users, will ensure that positive effects are felt sooner, and on a larger scale.
Recognizing that the federal government has a limited amount of funding to disburse, we believe a thorough review of the grants and contributions system, with an eye to maximizing the return on investment for the federal government, would make the system more efficient and facilitate the development of better products. We look forward to working with you on this and other initiatives.
Thank you.