Industry Committee on April 29th, 2020

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, MP Longfield, for sharing your time with me.

My question is for the deputy minister of agriculture. As we all recognize, these are really difficult times for people in the cattle industry and for people in the agricultural sector. Also, as we all know full well, these sectors in particular are very much integrated into the North American economy. For example, quite often in the meat industry, you'll see that cattle are grown here but head down south for further processing.

Obviously, given the high degree of integration between the two sectors, it's important that we manage to juggle challenges that arise either south of the border or in Canada itself. How concerned should we be about the level of integration between the United States and Canada for many of our food producers?

[Chris Forbes]

I would say first off that I think the level of integration has served us quite well. If you look at the food system overall—and the minister talked earlier on about keeping the border open—indeed you see it's an issue in the pork and beef industries, but also in many parts of our food system. When you look at the products we buy, you see they're a mix of Canadian-grown, U.S.-grown, processed on either side, and that includes the beef sector. First and foremost I'd say we should be thankful that the borders have remained open. That strong integration has served us quite well.

That certainly does not reduce the challenges that we are facing, particularly in the meat sector across North America. It has effects. What happens in the U.S. has an effect on prices that Canadian producers will get, ranchers and hog producers in particular. I think that overall the net is a strong positive for us, both in terms of the economic side but also in terms of the food availability.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you very much. I think I'm out of time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you so much.

With that, I would like to thank everyone for joining us this evening. Thank you again to the clerks, the analysts, the IT crew who are trying to make sure that we can stay on these calls. I want to thank the administrative staff supporting us behind the scenes to make sure that today's meeting was possible.

Stay safe everyone. We will see you tomorrow at INDU.

With that, the meeting is adjourned.