Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Gray. You're right on time. Now we'll go to Mr. Skolrud for five minutes, please.

Agriculture committee  I call this meeting to order. Welcome to meeting number 33 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food. I will start with a few reminders for witnesses who may not have joined us in the past. Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format. The proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website, and the webcast will always show the person speaking rather than the entirety of the committee.

Agriculture committee  Yes, the first group of witnesses did. The second panel has not. I would like to welcome our witnesses for the first panel. As an individual, we have Richard Gray, professor, from the department of agriculture and resource economics at the University of Saskatchewan, by video conference.

Agriculture committee  It's awful.

Agriculture committee  I'm glad you spoke about the PMRA as well, and certainly I would caution the government that it is injecting politics into some of these decisions that should be science-based. For example, on the PMRA, they have now created a politically appointed advisory panel. Just to quote from part of their mandate, they will insert themselves prior to “evidence-based” decisions on PMRA on pesticides.

Agriculture committee  Mr. Menzies, what would be the risks to Canadian agriculture, potentially, of politicizing departments like the PMRA in their decision-making, rather than ensuring that it is science-based and that politics are not a part of those decisions? What would be the impact if glyphosate decisions, for example, were based on politics and activism and not on sound science?

Agriculture committee  Thank you. At the end of your comments when you ran out of time, you were mentioning what the fertilizer emissions reduction policy is, for example. It doesn't bring into consideration the understanding of the steps that producers are already taking to ensure that they are not only environmentally efficient but also economically sustainable.

Agriculture committee  I'm out of time. I want to mention your 40 acres. What will happen if you have to use less fertilizer is that you're going to try to force yourself to cultivate those 40 acres, which probably isn't good for agriculture. It is actually going to increase your emissions and use of fossil fuels.

Agriculture committee  Thanks, Mr. Chair. Mr. Menzies, I would invite you to submit your opening remarks to the clerk, since you weren't able to finish them, so that we have those on the record. I think some of your comments about our moral obligation to help feed the world resonate. I think part of that shows the importance of fertilizer, crop protection products, and certainly biotechnology and innovation, but I would argue that this government is starting to make some policy decisions based on politics and ideology rather than sound science, and that's hurting our reputation.

Agriculture committee  You say, “only certain areas”. Should this happen and this legislation go through, are we talking about rail not moving, or are we saying there'll be, let's say, a 50% reduction in capacity or the ability to move product? Do you have an idea what that would quantify as?

Agriculture committee  Okay. We had a witness in a previous study, Murad Al-Katibfrom AGT Foods, who I'm sure you know well. He said that one of the key issues for the supply chain and food security was ensuring that commodities that could be moved by pipeline are moved by pipeline and that commodities that need to be moved by train are moved by train.

Agriculture committee  The pipeline is lower on GHG emissions too.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Lehoux. I want to go back to Mr. MacDonald. I believe there are eight labour agreements between you and CP that are set to expire by end of the year when we're looking to move commodities like grain. The Liberal Minister of Labour announced today that they were going to have legislation against replacement workers.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. Thanks, Mr. Johns. Thanks to our witnesses as well. We are out of time. We have about a minute. Mr. Buy, I wanted to ask you one quick question, if I may take some prerogative as the chair. There was lots of discussion today from all of our different witnesses on what technology is available.

Agriculture committee  Thank you to all the witnesses for their time. I wish our committee members a belated happy Thanksgiving. I hope everyone had a good break. We will see you on Wednesday.