moved that Bill C-49, an act to amend the Department of Agriculture Act and to amend or repeal certain other acts, be read the third time.
I am glad to address the House as Secretary of State for Agriculture and Agri-Food, Fisheries and Oceans and to move the third reading of Bill C-49 entitled: An Act to amend the Department of Agriculture Act and to amend or repeal certain other Acts.
Three weeks ago, at the start of this debate, the minister was telling the House that this bill was a reflection of the kinds of changes the Canadian agriculture and agri-food industry has undergone in recent years and can anticipate in future years. The proposed changes are not spectacular, but they are important for the two following reasons. First, they take into account the fact
that agriculture as a commercial activity is evolving and is now much more that mere growing of plants. Second they represent sound public management.
The agri-food element now added to the mandate of the department is important, because it reflects the interactions we must have with all our clients, from producing farmers to urban consumers. To prosper, the processing sector must rely on flourishing farms and, conversely, farmers need a healthy processing sector for their goods. We are mutually dependent for our daily bread.
Allow me to illustrate with a few examples. In 1993, $10.5 billion worth of farm inputs such as seeds, machinery and fertilizers were transformed into farm production valued at $21.5 billion. In turn that farm production was further transformed into processed foods and beverage products worth $46 billion.
In 1993 Canada exported $13.3 billion in agri-food products. That contributed to a surplus of some $3 billion to Canada's balance of trade.
The recognition of these connections will be important as we plan for the future.
These amendments will contribute to better public management for the following reasons. The bill defines more clearly the department's responsibilities in research. The present legislation indirectly refers to research by mentioning experimental farm stations. The bill broadens this definition to include research in agriculture and its products specifically with respect to experimental farm stations. This is a wise clarification at a time when Canadian industry must compete on international markets dealing with food and non-food products, that is to say products resulting from research.
More amendments. The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food will have the authority to designate inspectors for the purpose of the Food and Drugs Act, a responsibility which is presently his under several other acts. Contrary to what the opposition has been implying, this amendment does not add to the inspection functions of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. Rather, it is an amendment necessary to allow the minister to carry out responsibilities under the Food and Drugs Act he inherited from the former Department of Consumer and Corporate Affairs.
These amendments represent a sound management practice since they repeal three pieces of legislation which had become useless.
Finally, under this new bill, the department will publish only one yearly summary of its expenses and programs in a single document, namely Part III of the Main Estimates, instead of doing it in several annual reports. This will save a lot of time and money.
With the world trading environment opening up with new ways of doing business emerging, it is an opportune time to review the mandate of one of the country's oldest departments.
Over the next few months the minister will be working with producers and industry to hammer out a shared, comprehensive vision about where we want agriculture and agri-food to be in the year 2000, 2005 and 2010 and how we plan to get there.
The government is preparing to make some fundamental decisions about many longstanding and difficult issues in agriculture and agri-food. These decisions for the future will be part of a comprehensive plan for a modern, progressive industry.
The minister has spent a good deal of his time during the past month or so talking about the need for a long term vision. The minister's view is clear. Industry should be growing. Industry should be competitive. Industry should be market oriented and, of course, it should be profitable.
It should respond to the changing food and non-food needs of domestic and international customers. It should be less dependent on government support. It should contribute to the well-being of all Canadians and it should contribute to the quality of life in rural communities. Overall it should achieve farm financial security, environmental sustainability and a safe, high quality food supply.
As a New Brunswicker I am of course very interested in the vibrant farming community and agri-food industry. My province may be small, but it has developed a very competitive food sector. McCain Foods Ltd., Cavendish Farms, Ganong, Moosehead, Baxter Foods and Dairytown Products are all New Brunswick firms that have found success beyond provincial borders. In my own riding of Beauséjour, although concentrated in the fishery, food processing is a major activity and farming is as well.
I see in agriculture an agri-food industry that is leading the way in achieving growth, jobs and security, the three overriding themes of this government in the Atlantic region and across Canada. To achieve this, it is vitally important that everyone involved in this industry, from suppliers to producers to handlers and processors to consumers and governments, recognize that most of our issues cannot be dealt with in isolation.
This bill, which groups agriculture and agri-food together under one roof, highlights how important it is nowadays for sectors, provinces and even continents to consult one another.
We are all interconnected and interdependent. We must be aware of the possible impact of our aspirations and actions on the other links in the complex chain of stakeholders in the agricultural and agri-food sector. We need one another and we must adopt a concrete and firm team-work approach to solve our internal problems and compete against the rest of the world.
The GATT and NAFTA agreements have resulted in freer trade and easier access to world markets. Every government on the planet is helping its exporters to make inroads abroad. We too must follow suit. During our first year in power, we have taken steps towards this end.
Soon we will create a Canadian agri-food products marketing board which will be made up of people from the industry representing every sector of the agri-food business. This board will act as a forum to improve co-operation among industry players and to help them to be more competitive.
The Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food, in co-operation with the departments of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, will create an international agri-food marketing branch. Through this single window, the industry will have access to federal foreign market development programs. We have already put in place a network of agri-food trade specialists in key locations like Seoul, Singapore, T'aipei, Mexico and Dusseldorf, and this network is growing.
We are getting ready to take advantage of increasingly sophisticated national and international information highways. Our offices world-wide will be linked to the Info-Agro-Export network. This is an interactive, automated system providing personalized information on world markets. Canadian food industries invest a relatively small percentage of their sales in research and development, as compared to their US counterparts. They could do better in this area.
A few months ago, the research branch undertook a pilot-project called Agri-Food Research and Development Cofinancing Project. In this project, the department and the industry will work together to carry out research and development, each contributing half the funds. Since the industry will be setting its own priorities, the relevancy of the research and development activities will be guaranteed. In addition, technology transfer will be facilitated because, with the industry sharing in the financing of the research activities, its support will be guaranteed in advance. We hope that this project, to which a budget of $2 million was allocated this year, will be a first step towards a substantial increase in agri-food research in Canada.
This is only the beginning. The challenges we face are formidable. As I said earlier, in 1993 Canadian agri-food exports of $13.3 billion contributed a surplus of almost $3 billion to Canada's balance of trade, almost a full one-third of Canada's total merchandise trade balance.
However, it is worth noting that while there is a positive balance for primary products, there is a negative balance for processed products.
Strong export growth has been registered in early 1994 with projections for the year moving beyond the $14 billion mark. Canada's overall share of the world agri-food market has declined since the early sixties. Our growth in agri-food exports is lagging behind the rest of the world. It will be a major push to meet the $20 billion export target by the year 2000 set last year by federal and provincial agriculture ministers.
We are on track toward that target in 1994 with exports projected to reach $14 billion. What can we do in co-operation with industry to keep on track?
These are some of the issues we need to address: From 1992 to 1993 our agri-food export surplus declined. In fact, countries which used to buy Canadian commodities and products are now net exporters. We have higher processing costs and less private sector research than some of our competitors. Government income support payments exceed net farm income and are much higher than our investments in marketing or market development.
There is little growth in our exports of these higher value products to countries other than the U.S, in particular, to Asian markets where demand is growing rapidly. We must therefore continue to address international access issues without forgetting there are unnecessary trade barriers here at home.
Of course food safety has been and must continue to be a priority in and for Canada. Our reputation for safety and quality is vital to our domestic consumers and it is a critical advantage in the international marketplace. At the same time we need to ensure that it is an efficient system.
The minister fully intends to continue playing an active role in promoting Canadian agri-food products abroad. Next month, the Prime Minister will head a trade mission to Asia, a region that the Governor General and the minister visited last spring. Next week, he will go to the international food fair in Paris, where he will participate in the presentation of international prizes to five Canadian companies that showed excellence in creating or marketing innovative food products. The Paris fair is the largest trade fair for food products in the world.
The Canadian agri-food sector already enjoys some significant advantages such as internationally famous product competitiveness, high health and safety standards, and environmentally friendly agricultural practices.
If we focus our activities on the markets, if we use our limited financial resources wisely, and if we keep in mind that the various elements of the agricultural and agri-food sector are interrelated, we will be able to preserve and even increase the level of success enjoyed by the whole sector.
By proposing these amendments today, we recognize that, even in a changing world, the Canadian agricultural and agri-food sector can continue to play an important role at the international level.