International Trade Committee on Nov. 17th, 2009

[Jacques Pomerleau]

Oh, yes, we have--

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

And you would say that to any member of any party?

[Jacques Pomerleau]

Oh, yes.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

In any country around the world.

[Jacques Pomerleau]

Yes.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

I think that's very compelling. I hope that gets heard.

Finally--and I'm mindful of my last minute or so--here's the thing. I hear the members opposite, at least one, talk about raising the business case, and it seems to me the response I hear is more subsidies, more promotion. I'm not here to challenge what the exact number should be, but it sounds to me that what you're really looking for to be able to improve pork production access to markets is exactly that, market access. Is my understanding of that clear? Would that be your number one priority?

[Jacques Pomerleau]

It always has been.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

Would you say it again to the committee, just so we hear it?

[Jacques Pomerleau]

Market access is our priority and will remain our top priority, because without access you cannot do any promotion or anything else.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

And in terms of that.... I'm done, and I want to thank our guest. I appreciate the candour, and I hope you will know that we appreciate the respect you've shown this committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Thank you, Mr. Holder, and thank you, Mr. Pomerleau. I think that was an excellent presentation and a delight to government members, I'm sure.

I did have one request. I guess it came from the Liberals and was with regard to a question that was asked earlier and a mention of a report. Mr. Julian, you mentioned a report the NDP commissioned, similar to FARC or something.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Not the NDP, no, the Colombian Coalition against Torture. They published a report this week.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Oh, I see. Could you table a copy of that for the committee?

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Yes, I'd be pleased to. Yes, I could personally deliver it to every member's office.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

We appreciate that. I'm sure we'll be hearing more about it.

Mr. Pomerleau, thank you again for appearing today.

We're going to continue. We'll just take a one-minute break. We don't need to go in camera for this next part, but we'll take a minute break to bid adieu to our witness and then we'll proceed with motions today.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

We're going into motions today.

I just have a little committee business. For those of you who hadn't heard, I did send a note around that our request for travel to Brazil was denied by the Liaison Committee. They were having kind of a cranky day. My sense is that if we revise that budget and perhaps propose it for the new year, if that is the wish of the committee, we'll probably see that visit to Brazil in January or February.

There are a couple of other things coming up, though, that we may want to consider if Brazil isn't on. I think the committee has been to Jordan, but it looks as if Japan and India are coming up, and those may be important to the committee as well.

To conclude that, I'll go to Mr. Silva.

[Mario Silva, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Mr. Chair, do you require a motion to that effect?

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

No, I think we'll have some discussion before we get into motions about reintroducing the Brazil question.

[Mario Silva, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

You don't need a motion to that?

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

No, I think it's going to need a little work first.

[Mario Silva, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Okay, that's fine. If you need a motion, let me know.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Thank you.

Okay, let us proceed to the business of the day, and that would be a notice of motion as provided by Mr. Julian.

Mr. Julian, if you would like to introduce your motion, we'll proceed.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Certainly, Mr. Chair.

As you know, we've had testimony from the beef industry, both last spring on April 2 and a couple of weeks ago, that indicates we simply aren't on a level playing field with our main competitors as far as a promotional budget for Canadian beef is concerned. So my motion, which I'll move in a moment, would simply have the committee urging the government to increase that promotional budget so we can get really strong federal government support behind our Canadian beef industry. The motion reads as follows:

That the Committee urge the government to support the marketing of Canadian cattle and beef exports by increasing the government’s promotional budget for Canadian beef, which is currently underfunded, to a level that establishes an equal playing field with Canada’s main competitors, including Australia and the United States, and that the Committee report this to the House.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Thank you, Mr. Julian.

Is there any debate on the motion?

Mr. Brison.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Mr. Chair, I have two amendments to propose. Should I propose one and then we'll discuss it and then have a vote on it?