Thank you, Ms. Chair.
Good afternoon. Thank you for the invitation to appear before the committee.
My name is Ian McFall, and I chair the board of directors of the Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council. While I’m here as the chair of CPEPC, I’m also the executive vice-president and family shareholder at Burnbrae Farms, a family-owned company with egg grading, processing and farming operations in five provinces across Canada.
I’m joined here today by our association’s president and CEO, Jean-Michel Laurin.
CPEPC represents Canadian hatcheries, egg graders and processors, chicken and turkey processors, and further processors. While our members are not supply-managed, you can see us as representing Canadian poultry and egg farmers’ main customers. Collectively, our membership represents more than 180 establishments of all sizes, and processes over 90% of the poultry and egg products raised by Canadian farmers.
Our association strongly supports Canada’s supply management system and international trade policies that are consistent with the system. We believe Bill C-282 is consistent with that system.
The poultry and egg supply chain that we represent, the people we employ and the communities we touch depend on ensuring that we have a strong supply management system in Canada. The market access granted for poultry and egg products through CPTPP and CUSMA, in addition to the existing market access through WTO, will have an impact on supply-managed producers and processors. It is worth noting that our industry is still adjusting to the escalating impact of these agreements. For instance, in the case of CPTPP, Chile just ratified the agreement. It also just banned poultry exports due to avian influenza.
For these agreements, it is worth noting that the government is providing financial compensation to supply-managed sectors. In the case of poultry and egg processors, the government is contributing to plant investments through the supply management processing investment fund. This fund will provide, on average, $17 million per year over six years to poultry and egg processors looking to increase their productivity and improve their competitiveness. This fund is in high demand. After being in place for almost a full year, it is now clear that it will benefit only some processors given the high volume of demand for this fund. It is also worth noting that the funding allocated under this fund represents a fraction of the expected impact of the trade agreements.
Bill C-282 is tied to Canada’s import controls regime. This is one of the three pillars that are key to upholding the supply management system. We acknowledge that some have concerns with the bill. Trade agreements are critical to non-supply managed commodities. We believe Canada can protect its supply-managed sectors while successfully negotiating trade deals that benefit Canadians. It is also our understanding that it is not the intent of the bill to restrict Canada’s ability to negotiate new agreements.
Access to imports in controlled and limited volumes for our members is also critical to supply-managed sectors. It is our understanding that Bill C-282 will not change the market access already granted to trading partners under current agreements or impact other trade legislation.
In closing, CPEPC believes this bill is consistent with Canada’s supply management system, a system that we strongly support.
We thank you for your time and would be pleased to answer your questions.