International Trade Committee on Sept. 27th, 2016

[Rosalind Waters]

What I would do is check with the Environmental Coalition of Prince Edward Island. They have information on their website, and if there are any studies on that, you would find them there.

[Ron Kelly, Member, Trade Justice PEI]

Did the question have to do with the study about the potential impact on the P.E.I. ecosystem?

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Yes. You talked about the environment and the effects of monoculture. You said that this would have a negative impact on the ecosystem.

Do you have some evidence to establish those facts?

[Rosalind Waters]

There are certainly studies that have been done on the level of nitrates in our rivers. There are about 14 active watershed groups on Prince Edward Island. They have analyzed. They have taken samples of the water in our rivers and measured nitrates. It's a sensitive issue on Prince Edward Island. It is the one issue that comes up every election. Probably the most common issue in letters to the editor is the concern over fish kills, anoxic rivers, and what are the other issues that we don't know about that might have an impact on human health.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Thank you very much, that's nice.

[Ron Kelly]

I think there would also be some studies done through the University of Prince Edward Island by Michael van den Heuvel. Plus, there would be statistics from the provincial government through their annual statistical review of the ongoing trends in agriculture for larger farms. The industrial model and the connection through the processors could be very well documented. I don't know whether it's all done in one study, but there would be parts that would be available through various sources.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Thank you very much.

I would like to ask some questions about the aerospace industry. The name of my constituency is Rivière-des-Mille-Îles. It's just south of Mirabel. Bombardier and Bell Helicopter are in my backyard. Many people who work for Bell Helicopter and Bombardier live in my riding. A number of companies in my riding work in supply chain management.

The fact that you now own 11 companies that have diversified in the last 25 years is quite impressive. Have I understood correctly?

[Lennie Kelly]

That's correct. We have seven companies on the aerospace side and the others represent the marine side.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

That's interesting. Where do your employees in the various companies receive their training?

[Lennie Kelly]

Most of them are trained here on Prince Edward Island through our local college, Holland College. We have a number of training courses specifically for gas turbine repair and overhaul. A lot of them come through Holland College, but there are some skills so specialized that they're not available here and need to be imported.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Thank you.

A little earlier, you did not know exactly what the impact of signing and ratifying the TPP would be on aerospace here in Prince Edward Island. I have met with pan-Canadian organizations in the aerospace industry, and they were in favour of the TPP. Have you met with those people?

[Lennie Kelly]

We haven't met with them, but I read their press releases. There's a difference between the original equipment manufacturers in your riding and what we do here in our industry. In your riding, they're manufacturers. When I read the dynamics of the agreement, I saw that the manufacture of aircraft parts was going to be affected positively by the agreement. Our industry is mostly maintenance repair and overhaul, and that's a service. I didn't see anything in the agreement that would affect us one way or another.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Okay, thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you, Madam Lapointe.

We're glad to see Mr. King here. We were looking forward to your coming here. Are you okay to give us your presentation?

[Dennis King, Executive Director, Seafood Processors Association of Prince Edward Island]

Yes, I have some very brief opening words.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

You have up to five minutes, but if it's less, that's fine too, and then we'll get right back into the rounds of questioning.

Go ahead, sir.

[Dennis King]

I represent the Seafood Processors Association of P.E.I., which is largely made up of lobster and mussel processors. Obviously, exports are the bulk of our business. Currently, 75% of our live exports go to the U.S., and 11% go to China. About 76% of frozen lobsters go to the U.S., and 12% go to Japan, and then we have European markets. The mussel business is exported almost 100% to the United States.

We're obviously very interested in new trade opportunities. We have been working for the past six or seven years to come up with more diversified, value-added products, so we can really revolutionize how we do our business on a day-to-day basis. We have found a tremendous market, particularly for lobster. There's a tremendous demand worldwide for our product. Our job has been to get it to the market, produce what the market needs, and break down some of the barriers.

Mussels...I always try to talk about both industries, because they make up my membership. There is some interest in frozen mussel opportunities to get to some of these new markets. Mussels have long been a fresh product, so trying to get that product to far-off markets is a challenge. We've been working on some new processes to try to extend the shelf life but the big opportunity for foreign far-off markets would be with lobster, not just for P.E.I. but for the region.

Many of you also know the challenges we face with labour. All these things go hand in hand. We're intrigued by the opportunities that could potentially be connected with the TPP, same as we are with CETA.

We want to work in lockstep with the industries. Our industry still has a lot of growing to do in that world though, and the way the world is changing, and access to world markets is changing, the way we do processing in this region will probably change dramatically within the next 15 to 20 years.

Essentially I'm here to try to field as many questions as I can, and once again, my apologies for being late—

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

That's no problem.

[Dennis King]

—but welcome to P.E.I.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Before we start, I have a question for you.

You mentioned you're mostly shellfish and it's lobster and mussels. You don't do crab or oysters?

[Dennis King]

Some of our guys would do oysters. Oysters are a live product, so there's not a great deal of processing involved in it, but there would be some cross-pollination with some of our guys. One of our members would do rock crab, and even some spider crab has been coming on the last few years, depending on whether the market would sustain it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Is that the green crab? I'm from Cape Breton, and we have green crab coming in. Nobody liked it, but they're starting to catch it and trying to sell it somewhere.

[Dennis King]

It's been viewed as an invasive species for a long time. I know in P.E.I. in the last 10 years some R and D money has been invested to try to find out if there's a market for it. There wouldn't be any green crab production here yet, but some rock crab.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you, sir.

We're going to go back to a dialogue with the MPs, and we're going to go to the NDP now. Ms. Ramsey, you have five minutes.

[Tracey Ramsey, NDP, Essex, ON]

Thank you so much for your presentations.

Thank you, Mr. King, for joining us.

I think that even Mr. King, Mr. Kelly, and Mr. Richard would agree that increased drug costs to people on P.E.I. are concerning. It is part of this trade agreement, that there will be an increased cost because the patents on pharmaceuticals will be extended. We heard about this yesterday in New Brunswick. In every province we visit, we hear about the concerns people have about being able to afford the medication currently in Canada, let alone having an extension on patents. This affects our communities. It affects the health of our country. Ms. Waters presented on that earlier, and I wonder if you could expand a little on what you think the impact of that will be here in P.E.I?