Evidence of meeting #27 for International Trade in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was market.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
Again, it was very insidious.
You're also aware of the thousands of cyber-attacks they do every day. I've been personally targeted by the People's Liberation Army's cyber-team when they have tried to hack into my parliamentary accounts, as well as others.
Have you been following the situation around President Xi Jinping's change ups of both his chief of defence staff and his vice-minister of defence in January?
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
In your opinion, what is the reason those people were removed from their positions within the People's Liberation Army?
Senior Fellow, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
Those people who have been removed are those who.... It's quite remarkable because in the case of the most senior official removed, his father and Xi Jinping's father were very good friends in the revolution. The two boys went to school together. However, he was removed, in my view and in the view of others in my China risk network, because he was admonishing against an attack on Taiwan. Xi Jinping has made clear since 2012, when he became secretary of the Communist Party, that there would be a takeover of Taiwan. He calls it reunification, but they've never been unified.
In my view, that's why this official and those who worked with him were removed. Xi Jinping just wants loyalists.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
My understanding, from reading Tristan Tang, who wrote about this in January right after it happened, is that there's a direct correlation with President Xi Jinping's ambitions for unification as early as 2027.
Senior Fellow, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
That's right. It's no longer five years away. In Xi's mind, it has to happen before he leaves office.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
What do you think Canada's response should be once military action by the PRC against Taiwan happens?
Senior Fellow, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
In the first instance, the U.S. has to take a very strong stance with allies such as Canada, in support of a cross-ally exercise with Japan, Australia, the U.K. and Canada.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
There will, of course, be military co-operation. What about economic sanctions similar to what we saw in Canada's moves due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine?
Senior Fellow, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
We should have economic sanctions, of course, but I don't think Xi would be moved by economic sanctions.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
We would immediately see retaliation and the ban of Canadian products entering the Chinese market, I would suspect.
Senior Fellow, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
We could.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
My question then is for Mr. Prybylski, as well as Mr. Fulton.
Do you believe that it's more important to be selling canola, beef and pork to China and do away with our national security and national defence interests?
Tyler, do you want to shoot first?
President, Canadian Cattle Association
No, these issues have to be considered independently. I'm here to advocate on behalf of the beef industry and market-driven signals that support our industry in Canada. We understand that it's a part of the geopolitical reality we live in. The goal is to manage that as best we can but still benefit from a diversified market.
Conservative
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Adam Chambers
Mr. Bezan, I'm going to have to ask Mr. Prybylski if he would like to get in on this question, because we're at the end of time.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
I'm talking about stability. We want stability, but is China a stable market?
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Adam Chambers
Give a brief answer, please. We may be able to come back to this in a future round.
Director, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
From a farmer's perspective, I don't know that we have the ability or the right to judge where our product is being marketed. We look at markets as a whole. If China is part of the equation, far be it from us to say we don't want to sell our canola to China because of factor A, B, C, D or whatever it is.
We look at it as a market—as a whole. We need to diversify. We need to have stable markets.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
China's not a stable market if they're taking military action.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Adam Chambers
I'm going to stop the round there. We're over time.
Mr. Naqvi, go ahead.
Liberal
Yasir Naqvi Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
I want to pick up on that line of questioning.
Mr. Bezan, you're really going in the right direction, because there is a quandary. It's important that we have the discussion. Thank you for pursuing this.
The reality is that China is the second-largest export market for Canada after the United States. It's a growing economy. The real question becomes how we deal with China and how we work with China. I understand what we've been continually hearing from various businesses, especially the agri-food sector and our farmers, in terms of the potential of the Chinese market. I also understand the concerns that Ms. McCuaig-Johnston is raising.
I would love to get a little deeper into how we can reconcile the two.
Mr. Prybylski, Mr. Fulton and Ms. Brocklebank, would any one of you talk a bit about what China means for our farmers and our agriculture sector, as well as the economic opportunities for the entire sector?
Liberal
Director, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
I have some quick figures. In 2024, canola meal exports to China were at $920 million, canola oil was at $21 million, peas were at $303 million and pork was at $468 million. This is certainly a significant market for our producers in this country.
Those numbers went significantly down because of the tariffs in 2025. Whatever the relationship is between Canada and China, from a farmer's perspective, we really have no control over that, but we see the effects of it. When we hear of geopolitical things happening thousands of miles away from our farms and it's affecting our bottom line, it is concerning. It's certainly hard to predict and plan for, yet we deal with it every day. It has a huge impact.