Response to Question - February 4th, 2004

Mr. Murray Calder (Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey, Lib.): Madam Chair, this summer I had a chance to talk with cattle producers all the way through my riding. One of the things that has become very apparent to me is the profiteering by the packing houses, one in particular in Ontario. It is at the point where producers have complained to me privately in my office that they cannot really come out publicly and complain about the profiteering because if they do they will be blackballed when they go to the stockyards. They will get a lower price than they would normally get. They are hooked into a situation where they cannot speak out.

Once the standing committee on agriculture gets up and running, how can we look into this issue? How can we get the Competition Bureau involved in this, because there is profiteering and it has even become worse than that; there is suppressive action within the farming community?

Mr. Paul Steckle (Huron-Bruce, Lib.): Madam Chair, that is probably the biggest question that our committee will have when we resume our sittings, hopefully in the next two weeks.

Profiteering on the part of packers, given that there is limited competition, that the culled cows are no longer going to the United States and have to be slaughtered here, that there is limited hook space, obviously in a time and a climate when basically we are running short of that kind of beef, and when our processors are saying to us “we may have to ask you to look at supplementary imports, at a time when we have all these cows in the country that need to be slaughtered”, I think that it is pretty disgusting.

It is my hope that when the committee reconvenes we will, as a committee, agree to have the packers, who have not agreed in the past, to appear. If we have to as a committee, and I am sure we had that agreement prior to prorogation, we will subpoena some of those people to the committee, because I do believe there is a story to be told. Obviously those people who have the story to tell from the producers' side cannot tell it for the fear of repercussions.

Therefore, we have to find a way where their message can come to us. Whether we have to use the witness protection act or whatever act we might have to use, we will find ways. We have a pretty ingenious committee and I know we are all diligent in finding some resolution to this.

I cannot accept the Competition Bureau's view that simply going out and gouging in this case, because there are no others in the marketplace, that it is fair ball. It is not fair ball. Our farmers have been gouged and raped, and we have to do something about it. We are the only advocate farmers have left. They themselves cannot go to the table because of the fact that there would be repercussions for them in the industry if they did that.