Evidence of meeting #28 for Health in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cfia.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3:45 p.m.
Bloc
Luc Desilets Bloc Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
From your answer, I gather that you're still waiting for the government to respond with substantial funding. We are talking about billions of dollars in financial support, after all.
Ms. Robinson, what food supply problems should we expect come the fall?
3:45 p.m.
President, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
I'm sorry, the interpreter changed. I missed the question.
3:45 p.m.
Liberal
3:45 p.m.
Bloc
Luc Desilets Bloc Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
What should we expect in the fall as far as the food supply goes?
3:45 p.m.
President, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
The fall is certainly a great unknown. The uncertainty of what's going to happen if we....
I'm hearing French.
3:45 p.m.
Bloc
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
Tamara Jansen Conservative Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
I'm also hearing French. I'm on the English channel and I'm hearing French.
3:45 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Ms. Robinson, are you on the English channel at the bottom of the screen?
3:45 p.m.
President, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
Yes. I think Ms. Jansen is having the same experience as me. Every time I speak, I hear French.
3:45 p.m.
Liberal
3:45 p.m.
Bloc
Luc Desilets Bloc Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Yes, I'm on the French channel.
Would you like me to repeat the question? I'm not sure whether you heard it.
3:45 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Maybe I'll ask Madam Clerk to verify that interpretation is working correctly.
3:45 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Madam Clerk, I think your bandwidth has kind of gone. I can't hear what you're saying.
3:45 p.m.
President, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
The kids are playing the games.
3:45 p.m.
The Clerk
We should be good to go, Mr. Chair.
3:45 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Thank you.
Monsieur Desilets, please go ahead with your question. We'll give it one more try.
3:45 p.m.
Bloc
Luc Desilets Bloc Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Very well.
My question is for Ms. Robinson.
What should we expect this summer as far as the food supply is concerned?
June 17th, 2020 / 3:50 p.m.
President, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
I believe the channels are switched because I'm hearing only the French.
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
3:50 p.m.
President, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
Okay, the question is the same as it's been.
It's difficult to forecast what the food supply is going to look like in the summer and in the fall. A great deal of the uncertainty has to do with access to labour. There's also great uncertainty with regard to how COVID is going to impact food supply chains. If we see an interruption in processing, that will cause issues. Generally, we hope for the best and plan for the worst.
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Thank you, Mr. Desilets.
We now move on to Mr. Davies.
Mr. Davies, you may go ahead. You have six minutes.
3:50 p.m.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, witnesses, for being with us.
Mr. Murphy, this is from a news release issued by the Agriculture Union, on May 11:
Under threat of discipline, CFIA instructed some of its non-meat inspection staff to train up as “instant” meat inspectors to be deployed to potentially COVID-19 infected meat slaughter plants, whether they want to work there or not.
Could you inform this committee how many non-meat inspection staff have been redeployed as “instant” meat inspectors?