Gerry Ritz

[Agricultural Growth Act, November 19th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, that is a ridiculous assertion. This piece of legislation has been running around these halls for some 23 years. It is called UPOV '91 because its basis came from discussions in 1991. There have been decades of discussion around this bill, so for any farm group to say that it has not had time to frame its opinion or bring forward its issues is completely ridiculous.

The bill has had several iterations in the House. The Liberals took a couple of runs at it when they were in government for 13 years, but they did not get it to this point. We intend to see this put into law. It is the right thing to do.

The vast majority of farm groups out there, with the exception of one, recognize the benefits they would gain from this. It would draw more R and D to this country. It would draw more investment in research.

It is amazing. Farmers have grasped that they need the best in order to be innovative and efficient on their farms. They welcome the passage of this bill. We will see that it gets done.

[Questions on the Order Paper, November 17th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, with regard to (a), in 2013, confined field research trials were not prohibited at the Central Experimental Farm, CEF. While Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, AAFC, received authorization from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, CFIA, to conduct field trials at the CEF, AAFC withdrew the approved application as it was determined that the project did not require field trials. Thus AAFC did not proceed with any trials during this period.

With regard to (b), in 2014, AAFC did not have any projects requiring field trials at the CEF, and thus no applications were made to CFIA to conduct confined field research trials during 2014. Therefore, there were no field trials of crops with novel traits conducted at the CEF in 2013 or 2014.

[Agriculture and Agri-Food, October 21st, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite answered his own question when he talked about confidentiality agreements. I am not going to talk about that either.

I will say that at the end of the day, the CWB is alive and well, because this government undertook to keep it alive and well. We put forward some $300 million to make sure that farmers were not bridled or saddled with the costs the CWB was carrying. There were no assets. All of the assets were so heavily leveraged that they had to be paid out by Canadian taxpayer money to give it a fair shot at becoming a viable entity as it moves forward. It will continue to do that.

It is doing extremely well out there in western Canada. It is starting to move across into eastern Canada, with the purchase of Mission Terminal. We look forward to the future success of the CWB.

[International Trade, October 1st, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, like the Minister of International Trade and like agricultural groups across our great country, we are excited about the potential to serve some 500 million new consumers in the European Union. In fact, I will be attending the SIAL food show in Paris coming up toward the end of the break week, and I know there are a number of cheese industry players from Canada there who are excited about being able to export into the European Union.

The member is a bit premature on her ask if there is going to be any hurt. I have had discussions ongoing with the dairy industry across Canada as to how best to address these new opportunities.

[Agriculture and Agri-Food, September 25th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, of course we cannot control what the Americans are going to do, but having said that, we continue to work with our Horticultural Council. I have had discussions with its American counterparts under the RCC umbrella and under a number of other auspices. We continue to move horticultural products back and forth across the borders. We are talking about some $7 million that have been used under this program over the last number of years. It is not a large number, but we want to make sure that when our horticultural guys deal on the American side, or for the same thing when they reciprocate up here, that everybody has the ability to be paid for that top quality produce.

[Agriculture and Agri-Food, September 25th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, no one is talking about closing the border. I am not sure why the member would want to go to that extent.

He knows there are effective consultations going on with our American counterparts. I know that the Canadian Horticultural Council, under the able leadership of Keith Kuhl, has been briefed constantly on this. The bankruptcy laws in Canada are under discussion, and we look forward to that report coming out very soon.

[Agriculture and Agri-Food, June 12th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, since NAFTA put some rules in place, we work with the Americans on the WTO, we work with them on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and we also have other trade agreements that involve the Americans as we pass through merchandise to Mexico. It is always incumbent on us to ensure that those trade routes stay open. There will be disputes, but we continue to work with our partners in the U.S.

I was at a trilateral meeting in Mexico just a couple of weeks ago, where I and the Secretary of Agriculture for the U.S. and the Secretary of Agriculture for Mexico started hammering out some of these deals.

We continue to work on behalf of Canadian agriculture. I wish the NDP would do the same.

[Agriculture and Agri-Food, June 12th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite would know that Canada is a large agricultural trading nation, the third largest in the world. We rely on multilateral and bilateral trade agreements. We want to see them successful.

We are a very strategic partner in the movement forward on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. We continue to make arguments on behalf of Canadian agriculture, as well as all the industries that will be affected. We will never sign an agreement that is not in the best interest of the Canadian economy.

However, at the same time, what I am getting phone calls from farmers about right now is when the NDP is going to pay back all the money it has ripped off from Canadian taxpayers.

[Agricultural Growth Act, June 4th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, we have done just that. We did not wait for Bill C-18 to be put together. A tremendous amount of consultation went into putting Bill C-18 together. We worked with agricultural groups and the provinces across this great land.

I agree with the member that farmers are the salt of the earth and they work hard to save their land. But the one thing the member opposite has missed is if farmers want to save their land, the best way to do that is to make sure they have the most innovative tools at their disposal so they have the ability to make a bottom line profit so they can continue to grow that enterprise. I agree with the member on that.

To the best of my knowledge, I have never dealt with or met with anyone from Monsanto.

[Agricultural Growth Act, June 4th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the gentleman opposite is actually making my point. Democracy is about having one's say, not necessarily having one's way, regardless of what percentage is represented.

At the end of the day, the vast majority of farmers, 99.9% of them, want this now, and we are delivering exactly that for them.

The NDP members get a supply day. That is when those members control the debate. If they want to debate closure, then they should bring it up next Tuesday. We will talk about it all day, right until midnight if that is what they desire.