Finance Committee on Oct. 8th, 2026

[Pierre Gratton]

My understanding is that the two are linked. One works off the other. I don't know if there's another way to get there that you're suggesting. Maybe officials at Finance or maybe some tax specialists might know, but my understanding is that the definitions in the CEEs inform what you're able to raise using flow-through shares.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you, Mr. Gratton.

Thank you, Mr. Turnbull.

Mr. Garon, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Priori, I'll follow up on what was said earlier. Could you just remind me what health issues related to pesticides cost the government? Could you repeat the number you gave me at the beginning?

[Pascal Priori]

Yes, but it's actually just for endocrine disruptors, and it's $35.8 billion a year. So that's an official estimate.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Excellent.

We have a government that talks to us about public finances, about efficiency and about human productivity. We understand that these health issues are a disaster for human productivity. Who's to say that's the government's priority? Today, the government is coming to us with a reform that does the exact opposite when it comes to pesticides.

I get the impression that we have a government that wants to fast-track mining projects and oil projects. You know, these are all things that enable the government to get money quickly. They want to do it quickly, whereas these health issues unfold over 10, 15, 20 or 25 years, and the consequences are serious. What's more, it's the provinces that end up paying.

Don't you think there's a kind of inconsistency in the government's rhetoric between wanting to be more productive and efficient and saying that it's going to put the health of workers and people in the agricultural sector at risk? What do you think of this type of doublespeak?

[Pascal Priori]

Indeed, the government is creating long-term debt by not investing in preventive health care. That's our message: We must invest in prevention. It's better for farmers, it's better for exports, it's better for the soil, and ultimately, it's better for the entire supply chain. It's also essential to think from this perspective. Investing in preventive health care yields far greater benefits than investing in other models associated with fossil fuels such as—

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

I'm sorry for interrupting, but I have only about 35 to 40 seconds of speaking time left.

What do you say to CropLife Canada? CropLife representatives came here this week to tell us that their objective, their goal, is simply to protect crops and seeds. You listen to them speak, and it's as if they were the great protectors of the universe.

What do you say to those people?

[Pascal Priori]

I think we need to be clear: Their goal is to make a profit. Most of them are foreign multinational corporations that are taking advantage of Canadian farmers at the expense of their health. Their goal is not to serve agriculture, and that's normal. We can't blame them for that. They are private companies. They have to make a profit.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you, Mr. Priori.

Thank you, Mr. Garon.

We're going to continue now with Mr. Bexte for five minutes.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, witnesses, for being here today. I really appreciate the opportunity to dig into some of these issues.

I have a quick question for Mr. Priori. Do farmers and agriculturalists in Canada deserve...? Should they be enabled to use crop protection products of some sort?

[Pascal Priori]

Absolutely, it's essential today, but we must support them to reduce their dependence. This is a task that will take time and commitment on the part of the government.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

I have a very short time, so I'm going to be pretty punchy with this.

I've introduced a bill called the FARM act, which looks to modernize the regime for agricultural products, among other things. It looks to other jurisdictions and assessments that they've made to inform approvals in Canada.

Could this help the circumstance you're talking about where there are products that are not ideal in Canada? If there are products in other jurisdictions, should we improve, lubricate or accelerate the pathway to getting them approved for use in Canada to displace products that maybe aren't ideal?

[Pascal Priori]

Today, the problem isn't new products that need to be registered; the problem is the overuse of pesticides. We need to use more active ingredients because we're using far too many pesticides, and that creates resistance. So, we need—

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

That's a false equivalency, and that's not the question I was asking. I understand the root cause or discussion you're getting at, but that's separate from what I was asking. I appreciate your time. Thank you.

I'm going to turn to Mr. Gratton and this notion of the resource industry at large. There are a bunch of things that have to happen before there's any economic benefit. Could you speak to us about the sequence of exploration, discovery, evaluation and commercialization when the tax measures we're talking about today come into play and about where the gaps are?

[Pierre Gratton]

Sure.

The very front end of the business is the exploration side. They rely on geological surveys provided by federal and provincial governments that allow them to identify where they want to explore. The majors also explore. For most of the majors—when I say majors, I mean the ones that have operating mines—a lot of the exploration is in and around their mine sites because of—

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Brownfield development.

[Pierre Gratton]

—brownfield development. The best place to look for a new deposit is where your existing one is.

The juniors do a lot of greenfield. They go all over the place, and one in every 1,000 discoveries becomes a mine.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

That's a very interesting statistic.

Would it be fair to say that most juniors ultimately then feed into the production stream or the enterprise of the large companies? They get acquired along the way to develop equity.

[Pierre Gratton]

Agnico Eagle was once a single mine operator and a small company. Now they're Canada's largest. Juniors do become big, but most juniors sell their properties to majors that then develop them.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

[Inaudible—Editor], and they're exclusively in that exploration activity.

[Pierre Gratton]

That's right.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

How far do you think we are from where we should be in terms of tax incentivization and regulatory reform?

[Pierre Gratton]

The measures in the last few years have been very positive. The mega deduction of a couple of weeks ago is another very [Inaudible—Editor]—

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

On a point of order, the mic isn't on.

[Pierre Gratton]

Do I have time?