44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 23, 2022
- 04:30:14 p.m.
- Watch
- Read Aloud
I call this meeting to order.
Welcome to meeting No. 39 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food.
I will start with a few reminders. Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format. The proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website. Just so you are aware, the webcast will always show the person speaking rather than the entirety of the committee. Taking screenshots or photos of your screen is not permitted.
Colleagues, today we are studying Bill S-227. Pursuant to the order of reference of Wednesday, November 2, 2022, the committee is commencing the consideration of the bill, an act to establish Food Day in Canada.
I would now like to welcome our witnesses to our panel.
First of all, it's always a privilege to be able to be your chair on this committee, but it's always nice to be able to welcome my counterpart in the other place, as they say, Senator Black, who is the chair of the agriculture committee on the Senate side.
It's wonderful to have you here. Thank you for your work as a parliamentarian and thank you for your work on this bill.
We also welcome Mr. Nater, who is the sponsor of the bill here in the House of Commons, the member of Parliament for Perth—Wellington. Mr. Nater, thank you for your work in helping to sponsor this bill and for your presence here before the committee.
Colleagues, as your chair, I would hazard a guess that this is not a controversial bill. The clause-by-clause study would be quite short, because it's only one line, but I think it gives us an opportunity as a committee to ask our witnesses about the rationale of this coming forward, the ability to talk about the importance of agriculture and how we collectively share that vision.
I see John saying that there goes his question.
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
The Chair: The way in which I'm going to handle this, colleagues, is that we will go back and forth in the traditional manner. Feel free to choose your time. We have up to two hours. It doesn't have to be two hours; it's really at the discretion of this committee.
I'm in your hands as always, and I'm going to start with opening remarks from our witnesses. I've given you seven and a half minutes, but you don't have to use all that time.
We're going to start with Senator Black. It's over to you, my friend.
442 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- 04:38:17 p.m.
- Watch
- Read Aloud
Thank you very much, Senator Black. Those were strong words.
We will now go to Mr. Nater to follow up.
20 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- 04:44:36 p.m.
- Watch
- Read Aloud
Thank you, Mr. Nater. I don't think you're going to have any issue with support with those strong words.
Thank you to the Stewart family as well.
Colleagues, we will move to questions, of course. Feel free to use as much time as you like. I'll keep an eye on the clock, but I think we'll just allow individuals who want to engage to do so, and we'll go from there.
Mr. Barlow, you're first up.
82 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- 04:50:45 p.m.
- Watch
- Read Aloud
Mr. Black, we might have an issue with interpretation.
Monsieur Perron, I will keep speaking in English until you're able to hear me in French....
Are we good? Okay.
I had stopped the clock, Mr. Black. If you want to finish that, we'll go from there.
48 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- 04:51:10 p.m.
- Watch
- Read Aloud
That's wonderful.
Thank you, Mr. Black, Mr. Nater and Mr. Barlow.
Now we have Mr. Drouin for up to six minutes.
22 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- 04:54:52 p.m.
- Watch
- Read Aloud
There's still a little bit of time.
Ms. Taylor Roy, you wanted to have an intervention. Perhaps I would invite you to make a few comments now.
28 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- 04:57:48 p.m.
- Watch
- Read Aloud
We are at time, Ms. Taylor Roy.
We'll move to Mr. Perron for questions or comments, and of course other members on either side may want to continue.
Mr. Perron, you have the floor.
36 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- 05:03:59 p.m.
- Watch
- Read Aloud
Thank you, Mr. Perron, Mr. Nater and Mr. Black.
Mr. MacGregor now has the floor for six minutes.
22 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- 05:08:23 p.m.
- Watch
- Read Aloud
Thank you, Mr. MacGregor.
Now I understand that Ms. Rood and Mr. Lehoux are going to share a short period of time for some comments.
25 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- 05:13:55 p.m.
- Watch
- Read Aloud
Thank you very much.
I am now giving the floor to Ms. Valdez.
14 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- 05:17:02 p.m.
- Watch
- Read Aloud
Ms. Valdez, don't sell yourself short. It's agriculture and agri-food.
Mr. Turnbull, we'll go over to you.
21 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- 05:22:52 p.m.
- Watch
- Read Aloud
Thank you, Mr. Turnbull.
I have some concluding remarks. They won't be long.
First of all, food has the ability to bring urban and rural communities together.
Senator Black, you and I were at the Canadian Association of Fairs and Exhibitions. Part of my remarks was about how fairs are a way to bring people together in that domain.
Mr. Perron, I see your hand. Do we have a translation issue or do you want another round of questions?
80 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- 05:23:26 p.m.
- Watch
- Read Aloud
No, no, Monsieur Perron; I want to have the last word, so it's over to you, my friend.
19 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- 05:25:15 p.m.
- Watch
- Read Aloud
Thank you, Mr. Perron. Thank you, Senator Black.
Colleagues, I don't see any other hands.
I appreciate the conversation that we've had thus far today on the legislation.
As I was saying to you, Senator Black, I see food and the conversation around celebrating food in Canada as an opportunity to bring urban and rural communities together. I applaud you and Mr. Nater on your work.
I also know that any good parliamentarian has good staff around them. I see Kimberly and Olivia at the back whom I've had the chance to work with. I know they are integral to your team. Thank you to your staff.
The final thing I want to say, of course, is that I would be remiss without mentioning my agriculture community of Kings—Hants. As your independent, impartial chair, I will not say that Kings—Hants is the best riding in the country vis-à-vis agriculture, but it is one of the best. We all have that privilege of representing agriculture stakeholders. I tip my cap to them today if they are listening and watching this committee.
Colleagues, I think we can end there.
There are a couple of things that I need to say. If there are amendments, it's not my job to dissuade you from moving them, but I will dissuade you from doing so because it would force this bill, which I think is not controversial, to go back to the Senate, as Mr. Nater has highlighted. If you or any parliamentarian do feel the need, November 30 is the deadline to get that to the legislative clerk. For the benefit of Mr. Nater and Mr. Black, we are intending to do clause-by-clause study, which will not take long, on December 14. We hope to have this report back before Christmas as a nice Christmas gift to you and to all of the folks who were involved.
Colleagues, we will be meeting on Monday to take on the study that we had talked about, which is in relation to supply management and Ukraine. We are working on witnesses. We hope to have confirmation of panels in due course, as the clerk is working on getting that lined up.
Are there any other questions or concerns, colleagues?
The last thing I want to say is that tonight is Irish heritage night. Our good friend Jamie Maloney, the member from Etobicoke—Lakeshore, is hosting. Senator Black might even be giving remarks there. I would encourage you to go have pint and celebrate all things Irish and Irish-Canadian.
The meeting is adjourned.
439 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- menumenu
- notificationsnotifications
- home
- mailmail
- searchsearch
