Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members, for the opportunity to present to you today on a topic of importance to the farmers whom our association represents.
My name is Erin Gowriluk, and I am the executive director of the Grain Growers of Canada, a national advocacy association that represents the interests of 65,000 grain, pulse and oilseed farmers in every province across the country.
Depending on the commodity, approximately 80% of the grain we grow in Canada is destined for international markets. As the fifth-largest agri-food producer in the world, Canada's agriculture and agri-food sector offers some of the highest economic growth potential in this country.
Canadian agriculture is a national success story in terms of both productivity and growth. As a key driver of our economy, agriculture and agri-food contributes $142 billion, or 6.7%, to Canada's GDP annually. We employ about 2.3 million people across the country.
According to the final report that was released earlier this month by the national supply chain task force, “Canada's standard of living is directly connected to our success in international trade and, therefore, to our transportation system's performance.” Canada's transportation system is critical to the agriculture sector. Farmers depend on these lines of transportation to receive critical input like fertilizer and deliver products to market.
With global supply chain shortages and increased geopolitical risk, harvest 2022 is the most important harvest in a generation. Following last year's devastating drought, we are relieved to see a return to average yields. Getting this year's harvest to consumers will be necessary to safeguard food security and the livelihood of Canadian farmers, who are paying record high fuel prices and input costs to dry and ship their grain.
Demand for products that Canadian farmers can deliver is growing, but we can only capitalize on these opportunities if we can ensure efficiency and reliability in our own transportation system. We have a strong, global reputation as a trusted supplier of safe, top-quality food, yet our reputation is still contingent on the value chain's ability to deliver much-needed products to markets here at home and around the world. If unaddressed, labour shortages in Canada's transportation system will undoubtedly have serious and negative impacts on several sectors and the Canadian economy more broadly.
I am very pleased that the committee has undertaken this study to hear from stakeholders to proactively address these issues, to keep the Canadian economy moving as we seek to recover from the pandemic and to mitigate the impacts of an impending recession. While I am not a labour expert, I can speak to the impact that these shortages will have on Canadian grain farmers and in support of the recommendations that others have put forward.
For example, the final report released by the national supply chain task force identified that the current labour shortage in Canada's transportation sector will continue to be a limiting factor for a reliable and efficient supply chain unless drastic measures are taken. The task force called on the federal government to address Canada's labour shortage without delay and recommended that the following actions be taken: develop a transportation supply chain labour strategy, expand existing programs and examine ways to attract more under-represented groups to the sector, expand the temporary foreign worker program as it applies to workers in the transportation supply chain and expedite refugee and immigration processing for individuals who have experience in, or would be eligible to work for, transportation supply chain-related businesses.
These are proactive steps that the government can take in an effort to address labour-related issues in Canada's transportation sector now and into the future. We also have to find a way to build more reliability and resiliency into the system and find a way to reduce and ultimately eliminate the number of service action-related interruptions that Mr. Carey referred to.
The report goes on to confirm something that our members are acutely aware of, and that is the damaging effects that these work stoppages have on the national economy, people's livelihoods and ultimately Canada's international reputation as a reliable shipper. A resolution to labour action-related stoppages must be found soon, as the two class I railways are, together, facing the expiration of 12 collective agreements over the next two years.
While GGC has long been advocating for the use of binding arbitration and back-to-work legislation as tools to ensure that negotiations between unions and railway management are never allowed to affect service delivery, it is clear that a more robust strategy is required. As such, we support the recommendation also included in the task force report, which would see the formation of a council of experts, under the Minister of Labour, working together to “develop a new collaborative labour relations paradigm that would reduce the likelihood of strikes, threat of strikes, or lockouts that risk the operation or fluidity of the national...supply chain.”
I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to present alongside my colleagues here today. I look forward to your questions.