Evidence of meeting #11 for International Trade in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was workers.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Rich Smith  Executive Director, Alberta Beef Producers
Bryan Walton  General Manager, National Cattle Feeders' Association
John Weekes  Trade Consultant, National Cattle Feeders' Association
Doug Robertson  President, Western Barley Growers Association
Gil McGowan  President, Alberta Federation of Labour
Sandra Azocar  Executive Director, Friends of Medicare
Matthew Young  Member, Prairies and Northwest Territories, The Council of Canadians
Janelle Whitley  Manager, Policy Development, Canadian Canola Growers Association, Alberta Canola Producers Commission
Greg Sears  Chair, Alberta Canola Producers Commission
D'Arcy Hilgartner  Vice-Chair, Alberta Pulse Growers Commission
Leanne Fischbuch  Executive Director, Alberta Pulse Growers Commission
Kevin Bender  Vice-Chairman, Alberta Wheat Commission
Caalen Covey  Manager, Business Development and Markets, Alberta Wheat Commission
Erna M. Ference  Chair, Alberta Chicken Producers
Tim McMillan  President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
Allistair Elliott  International Representative, Canada, Canadian Federation of Musicians

1:45 p.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers

Tim McMillan

Yes, absolutely, they are the world's largest customer for liquefied natural gas. Pacific NorthWest has been working through the regulatory process, and they've made their final investment decision hinging on their environmental assessment work. It is imminent.

The opportunity is now, and most certainly in Asia and the growing markets around the world. Our only customer for oil and gas is the United States. It is a mature economy that is not growing its demand for these products; the growing demand is people who want to move out of poverty, to have better diets. Canada can be the supplier of choice in India, China, and Japan.

1:45 p.m.

Conservative

Gerry Ritz Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK

Great.

Thank you.

On the issues that you're raising, Mr. Elliot, is there a system somewhere in the world that you would emulate or that we should look at, a registry of some sort?

April 19th, 2016 / 1:45 p.m.

International Representative, Canada, Canadian Federation of Musicians

Allistair Elliott

Not that I'm aware of.

There is an organization called FIM, the International Federation of Musicians, and the gentleman who I wish was here today is actually on a plane to Geneva to be a part of that. That's where the Beijing treaty came out of, so there is a worldwide organization looking at things, yes.

1:45 p.m.

Conservative

Gerry Ritz Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK

We have some tremendous talent in Canada. We're second to none when you look our diversity, from the kitchen bands out in your part of the world to the banjo pickers in my part of the world, and we're global. There's no doubt about it. So I'm a little bit concerned that if we put in restrictions, then of course, our guys going out will face those kinds of restrictions too. I take your point on entry-level positions. A good friend of mine started in the bar scene—and it's not a family-friendly scene. It's not something you want to do for any length of time, but it's certainly where you get your start and get your notoriety, and a lot of people have gone on to stardom from that.

If he has an idea of a model that could be emulated, there's nothing that restricts us from doing things like that in the TPP, but it's maybe something we should look at on a separate note.

1:45 p.m.

International Representative, Canada, Canadian Federation of Musicians

Allistair Elliott

I think the biggest advocacy we can do is to advocate to our neighbours to the south to make the restrictions on going there as—

1:45 p.m.

Conservative

Gerry Ritz Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK

It's funny, because culture was part of a big discussion around the Beyond the Border initiative that President Obama and Prime Minister Harper signed. I was part of those negotiations on the agricultural side. We've made some movement there but we haven't done it on the culture. It's all about demand anyway.

Thank you.

Erna, it's good to see you. With regard to the chicken growers, you outlined a lot of the product that comes into the country. Certainly, we as a government need to move and it's now Global Affairs that actually controls a lot of those other imports. Finance had to sign off. There were three or four different departments, and we actually got it all worked through. The bureaucracy has done all the work. There's not a lot left to be done other than to go after the duty relief program. It never was to go after food. That's a no-brainer; that can be done. That offsets a lot of what's going to come in on the TPP side, so it's basically a zero-sum game.

Then when you start talking about spent fowl, you rightly pointed out that we're now buying 110% of U.S. production, which means somebody's cheating, and that needs to be shut down. Again, with regard to the creative packaging, we have stopped some of that, the sauce packs and so on, but there's more to be done. You talk about supporting TPP overall, and I welcome that. I know about 30% of the supply management folks, from dairy though to the poultry side, are free marketers as well. They have crops. They have cattle. They have pork. They understand that the work needs to be done.

1:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking

Mr. Ritz, you have 15 seconds, so you might want to—

1:50 p.m.

Conservative

Gerry Ritz Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK

Now I have less.

There's work being done. We need to get together and talk about how we—

1:50 p.m.

Chair, Alberta Chicken Producers

Erna M. Ference

I appreciate that. You say “cheating”, and I say “fraud”. Cheating is a nice way of saying fraud.

1:50 p.m.

Conservative

Gerry Ritz Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK

I'm always concerned about being sued.

1:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking

If you had some final comments...I don't know if there was a question. Did you want to make any comments?

1:50 p.m.

Chair, Alberta Chicken Producers

Erna M. Ference

No. Thank you very much. We appreciate everything that has been accomplished.

1:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking

That ends our panel, and I thank the panel of witnesses for coming here. It's a good ending for a good day here in Alberta, in Calgary.

I thank anybody in the audience who came to hear us, and I thank all the staff here at the Marriott, and the technical staff who helped pull this together today.

The meeting is adjourned.