International Trade Committee on March 24th, 2026

[Yves Ruel]

Chicken farming is done in closed buildings, so I don't think it really happens in deforestation areas. That may be more the case for crops or cattle pastures.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, QC]

Yes, for cattle. There's data on that also.

[Yves Ruel]

Obviously, to raise chickens, you need soybeans, and you have to grow it somewhere. Are there repercussions? I'm not an expert on the Brazilian situation by any means, but we often hear about it.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, QC]

How much time do I have left, Madam Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

You have 10 seconds left.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, QC]

In that case, thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

We have Mr. McKenzie, please, for five minutes.

[David McKenzie, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'm curious with respect to an outbreak of avian influenza that took place in Brazil last year and its impact on imports. What are some of the risks related to this in the event that a country exporting to Canada may have a sanitary or phytosanitary problem?

[Tim Klompmaker]

In Canada we've seen that, for Brazil, it impacted some of the imports that were coming in, and we saw lots of the importers making adjustments as to what countries they were importing from to still have the consistent supply they were used to. We've certainly seen it in the United States as well, where we had outbreaks, and you touched on it as well around the hatching-egg piece. We had avian influenza outbreaks there that ended up impacting our hatching-egg imports.

In Brazil, they've done lots of the same things we've done as far as AI is concerned. When I say “AI”, I mean avian influenza. They've done a lot of the same work that we've done in stamping out and controlling the area they are in. As a country, we simply will not allow imports to come out of those regions. It's certainly a risk for consumers when they have to depend on foreign products.

[David McKenzie, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Do you feel the Canadian Food Inspection Agency handled this effectively in terms of protecting the domestic Canadian market?

[Tim Klompmaker]

The safeguards that are in place around those types of outbreaks actually go beyond CFIA. They go to the World Health Organization as well. I think that the way it was handled was good, but it was a disruption of the imports we were used to, which is always a concern.

[David McKenzie, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Our markets here in Canada, in so many areas, are very closely integrated with U.S. markets, and often on a two-way basis.

Regarding this interruption, with respect to the situation in Brazil and the potential for exports to Canada, what's the impact then on our relationship with the United States as a major trading partner? Does it have a knock-on effect?

[Yves Ruel]

I'll try to answer that.

We have a TRQ under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement that is only for U.S. chicken suppliers. The WTO TRQ is available for all countries. Some comes from Brazil and some comes from the U.S. but under the WTO TRQ.

The U.S. doesn't allow Brazilian products in its market. Any chicken from Brazil that comes to Canada cannot be re-exported to the US. It's quite isolated, and there's no real impact.

Obviously, the more Brazilian chicken that comes here, the less happy the Americans will be, because it can erode the share of the WTO TRQ that they can fill. It doesn't touch the CUSMA TRQ, but they compete together under the WTO TRQ.

[David McKenzie, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

You mentioned a restriction on re-exports to the U.S. Is that a risk, or is that at risk of becoming a trade irritant between Canada and the United States?

[Yves Ruel]

I think the CFIA is very clear that plants that import from Brazil cannot re-export. I've never heard that it was a concern from the U.S. side.

It's very important that Brazilian chicken doesn't go to the U.S. market, because then it would become an irritant, for sure.

[David McKenzie, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

That's understood.

You're confident in the overall tracking of sources of production and that, when those elements enter our marketplace, they continue to be tracked so that we don't have a risk of re-export to the U.S.

Is that correct?

[Yves Ruel]

I'm not aware of any issues. I don't think it's a risk.

[David McKenzie, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Okay.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

With respect to the Meat Council, do you have similar concerns about the equivalency of sanitary and phytosanitary standards between us and any of the countries in Mercosur?

[Jorge Correa]

Currently, we have imports coming from those countries, and they go through the inspection system that is approved for those countries. We haven't found any issues, and we have not raised any issues about these types of situations.

The competent authorities from Mercosur countries and Canada are well aligned. Not all establishments in those countries are able to export to Canada, so they need to follow the requirements of Canada.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

[David McKenzie, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Fonseca, you have five minutes, please.

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Canada has a very robust trade diversification strategy, which I think the majority of you would agree with and want to continue to promote. We've had some large agreements, such as CETA or CPTPP, and some agreements that we've just signed with Indonesia. Now we're looking at Mercosur, India or some of the other countries.

The reason for this diversification is that we don't want to be dependent on any one market. We want to make ourselves more resilient and ensure that we don't experience the shocks that we have.

I want to go to Mr. Bourque.

What percentage of the fertilizers that are mined here in Canada are exported? I'd like to know that first.

Then, within your association, what is your diversification strategy? If you can have one market—be it the U.S., Brazil, China or India—buy all of your product, how do you diversify now within all of those markets? Do you say you're only going to sell 10% to this one country and 12% to another? How do you do that? Can you take us through the strategy and approach that you implement?

[Michael Bourque]

We are exporters of potash, and we are the largest producers of potash in the world. We have the most significant reserves in the world. As I mentioned, we also produce it in the most sustainable fashion, so we should be the most desired producer and seller of potash in the world. The vast majority of potash that we produce is for external markets. Obviously, there are big markets in Canada, but the majority of it is for export.

It's important to understand that we also import about 50% of the fertilizer that we need for farms across Canada; it is imported because we don't produce any phosphate fertilizer in Canada. This is all imported. We still import a great deal of nitrogen fertilizer, especially to the east coast. We've even imported, in the past, potash to the east coast because of the cost of transportation. Right now, we have a tariff on Russian potash, so there is not a lot of Russian potash coming into Canada. It's being supplied mostly domestically. Because of that situation, it's very important for us to have open trade. It's important for every farmer in Canada, as we are seeing.

I raised the war in Iran because it's an example of how something that happens globally can impact the availability and the price of fertilizer in Canada. For this spring, there doesn't seem to be any kind of problem with the supply of fertilizer in Canada, even nitrogen-based fertilizer, a great deal of which is produced in the Middle East. However, next year, depending on what happens with this war, it could be a different situation.

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

How do you decide what percentage of your potash goes to which particular market? Do you do that in a strategic way, or is it first-come, first-served?