Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be here this evening to speak to Bill C-280, which was introduced by the member for York—Simcoe. He sits next to me here in the House, and he is certainly not afraid to make his voice heard when it comes time to defend our produce growers. The Bloc Québécois is pleased to join him in his efforts.
Many members of the Bloc Québécois would have liked to sponsor this bill. I am thinking, for example, of the member for Berthier—Maskinongé or the member for Salaberry—Suroît. I, too, could have introduced this bill, because there are a lot of produce growers in my riding of Mirabel. The bill could have also been introduced by the member for Joliette or the member for Repentigny. In short, we all care a lot about this issue.
I therefore want to thank my colleague. There are some nice moments in Parliament when we can say that we are working together to do important things. Perhaps this should have been done sooner. This also reminds us of the importance of private members' bills, because they are inspired by what we see on the ground, by the people and businesses in our ridings. It reminds us of the fundamental work that members must do on the ground. I truly commend my colleague and, obviously, he is invited to come visit the maple capital of the world, Mirabel, any time he likes.
Produce growers, meaning fruit and vegetable producers, are still facing major challenges that continue to grow. We have talked about production costs, the cost of fertilizers and raw materials, and the declining demand for certain niche products as people struggle to afford things that can sometimes be perceived as luxuries at the grocery store.
We have talked about the Conservatives running deficit after deficit when they were in government. Things went from bad to worse under the Liberals. They are the kings of deficits. We have talked about bargaining power. Sometimes, small producers have to negotiate with resellers.
Bad weather is also a factor. I met some produce growers this summer as part of the Canada summer jobs program. I visited some businesses. I met Léanne and Vincent from the Entre Ciel et Terre farm in Sainte‑Anne‑des‑Plaines, Stéphanie from the Complètement légume farm in Saint‑Augustin, and Cinthya from Tierra Viva Gardens in Saint‑Augustin.
As we walked around the plots, they told us that they had lost 100%, 50% or 75% of this or that crop because of the rains. These people do not make a lot of money. They are true artisans. This serves as a reminder, and we cannot stress this enough, of the need for compensation programs here in Ottawa. However, that file is not moving forward quickly.
We can talk about the difficulties associated with climate change, bad weather, labour shortages, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the issue of temporary foreign workers, which creates challenges for our businesses. Then, there is foreign competition, obviously.
It is important to protect these companies when they sell their produce to resellers. How does the current system work? The member for York—Simcoe helped me gain a better understanding of how it works when someone is a fruit and vegetable grower.
Say that an American grows apples and sells them to a grocery store, to a reseller. If the grocery store goes bankrupt, this American has protection. He is registered as a supplier and, if the grocery store goes bankrupt, the government recognizes the fact that, since the supplier has not been paid, these fruits and vegetables belong to him and he is immediately reimbursed. That is the American system. Until 2014, Canadian and Quebec producers benefited from this system because they could sell their produce in the United States. If they sold to a grocery store in the U.S. and the grocery store or chain went bankrupt, they could get reimbursed the same way. This meant that we were relying on the Americans to protect our own producers.
In 2014, the Americans looked at what Canada was doing and found that Canada was in bad shape, that it had a terrible approach. They realized that their producers would not be protected if they sold their produce in Canada. If a Canadian grocery store or reseller went bankrupt, the producers would not get paid unless they went through an extremely costly process, which no small producer would go through if they could avoid it. Logically speaking, our own farmers were not protected either. The Americans told us to wake up, smarten up and protect our farmers and theirs so that there could be some sort of reciprocity.
In 2014, when the Americans tried to clue us in and told us that they were sick of protecting our farmers for us, they thought this would make the Canadian government sit up. They thought they were alerting Canada to take action. What has happened since? Cue the crickets, because nothing happened. The federal government did nothing. Now our farmers are no longer protected either in the United States or here at home. That is tough.
In 2016, we had a new Prime Minister who said, “Canada is back”. That was two years later. He went to the Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada and promised to get Canadian farmers back into this U.S. program, which would require Canada to adopt certain measures. Then the same old thing happened that always happens with the federal government when things are urgent: it waited and waited and waited.
Today, a courageous MP decided he would table these changes in the government's place. All of us members who have farmers in our riding are proud of that. We are proud to support him. We think this bill should have been fast-tracked directly to the Senate. We think there should not have been any nonsense. We think that there has been enough nonsense since 2014, and this process should have gone faster.
Right now, if our farmers want help, there are mechanisms. For example, in the United States, they have to file suit. There is a mechanism requiring them to pay a deposit worth twice the amount of the claim. They do not have the means to do that. The idea is to deter them so they never get paid for their fruits and vegetables and the products they sold to a reseller. It is disrespectful to the farmers who feed us and feed our cities. I want to stress that part for those who do not represent agricultural ridings. We are all connected to those farmers in some way.
Not only is it disrespectful, but it is also completely out of touch with the reality of being a farmer. Farmers have plenty to do without having to go to court, hire lawyers and waste their time on administrative procedures. Farmers are on the ground, dealing with all the problems I listed. They are in the fields, the orchards and the greenhouses. They take care of their businesses and their workers. They deal with temporary foreign worker applications while Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada takes its sweet time and the federal government does nothing to make the system better. That is what they do.
This bill will make their lives easier. It is going to restore justice. It is going to reduce the risks they bear in one of the riskiest sectors on the market. As we can see, it is getting harder and harder to attract new farmers, because it is not easy work. I want to thank the bill's sponsor for making all this easier for our farmers.
The bill will make the buyer of these products liable for the value of the shipment. The shipment will not belong to the buyer until the invoice has been paid. There will be a kind of priority list so that, if the person who has ordered agricultural products but has not paid their invoice goes bankrupt, the producer will be assured of getting paid without much trouble.
Right now, the system says that farmers have the right to get paid. Fifteen days after the bankruptcy, they have the right to recover the goods that were sold 30 days before. Do members see how little sense that makes for the agricultural industry? If any member of the House is opposed to this bill, I would challenge them to eat a 45-day-old salad or some withered old strawberries or blueberries. They can do it in the lobby and I will film it.
Under the current system, what we are telling farmers is to take back their rotten produce. That is how we are treating them. The current system is rotten. It needs to be changed. We need to move forward on this. This bill needs to move forward. The Senate needs to pay close attention to this so that this bill is passed quickly.
