Thank you, Madam Chair.
My name is René Roy, and I am a hog farmer from the Beauce region of Quebec. I'm here today with Dr. Egan Brockhoff, the chief veterinary officer for our industry.
We currently represent 7,000 hog farmers in Canada.
Our industry is not just an $11-billion economic engine; we are a frontline partner in food safety and public health.
Canadian hog farmers and their veterinarians and nutritionists understand that antimicrobial resistance is a global one health issue. Public health, animal health and environmental health are inextricably linked.
That is why the Canadian Pork Council on-farm food safety program has a responsible use policy embedded into its PigSAFE program. This program requires pork producers to work with a licensed swine veterinarian and requires all pork producers to be audited annually by an external auditor. Through our PigSAFE program, we have eliminated the preventive use of category I antimicrobials, those of very high importance in human medicine.
The swine sector has a remarkable stewardship track record. We started working with the Public Health Agency of Canada in 2006 on AMR surveillance and antimicrobial use monitoring within the Canadian integrated program for antimicrobial resistance, CIPARS, which is a farm-level surveillance system. We introduced our first national biosecurity standard on infection prevention and control in 2010, and then updated it again in 2024. Finally, we developed and implemented our own swine health intelligence network in 2007.
To reach the next stage, we need more. Producers need tools and they need experts. Currently, we are hitting two major walls: access to veterinary medicines and a shortage of swine veterinarians and specialists. Canada has fallen behind the United States, Brazil, Australia and Europe in approving new vaccines, medications and other products. Also, our producers are facing a shortage of specialized veterinarians, university specialists and laboratory support. Without access to this expertise, producers are left vulnerable during health emergencies.
For Canada to remain a leader, we are submitting three priority recommendations to the government.
The first is regulatory agility and red tape reduction. We ask Health Canada and the CFIA to work towards making Canada more attractive to the pharmaceutical sector through speeding up the approval of veterinary medicine by harmonizing this process with recognized international jurisdictions.
Second, to support infection prevention and control, we propose a biosecurity tax credit to help our family farms modernize their buildings for biosecurity.
The third recommendation is a massive investment in the production of veterinary expertise. Science is of no use if it does not reach the farm. We are calling on the federal government to increase education-related transfers specifically to expand the number of seats reserved for the production of animal medicine in our colleges. Simultaneously, we must invest in rural digital infrastructure to enable veterinary support through digital pathways.
In conclusion, farmers, including pork producers, are an essential part of the solution. Give us the vaccines, the modern facilities and the necessary experts, and we will continue to reduce our antimicrobial footprint while ensuring food security for all Canadians.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm willing to receive your questions.