Priorities for the 44th Parliament and beef’s role in economic recovery

Bob Lowe, president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association interviewed the NDP Agriculture and Agri-Food Critic and Member of Parliament Alistair MacGregor to find out how the New Democratic Party’s priorities align with and support the Canadian beef sector. This interview was taped on December 8, 2021 in Ottawa, Ontario.

What is your party’s plan to include the beef sector in Canada’s economic recovery, including trade and market access opportunities? How will your party help address some of the current trade imbalances and challenges we face?

Minister Bibeau

We want to be sure that we have a sustainable agriculture that is competitive. It really goes together. 

Our government is committed to opening new markets. We have signed a good number of free trade agreements and we are continuing to negotiate more agreements. It is important that we open opportunities for you. Signing an agreement is one thing, and then we have to work together to make sure we really get into the markets. It is important to diversify our markets and be sensitive to what the consumers’ needs and what their requests are. We will continue to work together to continue in this direction because last year was very good in terms of opening new markets and increasing our exports. 

John Barlow, MP

There are key roles that agriculture can play. As we go through the pandemic, food security is top of mind for everyone so there obviously is a role for agriculture to play. For the beef sector specifically, BRMs will be a large part of that. We want to look at the livestock price insurance program, make it permanent and include Atlantic Canada so that is something we can rely on. We can also look at the livestock tax deferral program that should be based on region and more inclusion of beef producers themselves on making those decisions, like the crop side. 

There are great opportunities for the beef sector in Asia. We need to address an agreement with the United Kingdom, whether bringing them into CPTPP, which might be the easiest and best access, because we’ve seen CETA isn’t working and we have a massive trade deficit. 

Alistair MacGregor, MP

I think the beef sector is an incredibly important part of the economy. Our agriculture committee in the previous parliament took a close look at Canada’s processing capacity and made a number of recommendations for how Ottawa can make strategic investments through tools like the local food infrastructure fund. Having resiliency in the system and making sure we have back-ups to future problems that might exist will not only help beef producers weather future storms but I think it will allow producers to recover in a much faster way and take advantage of the opportunities that are out there. 

It is really hard to peer into a crystal ball with all the [trade] challenges we see around the world. There is always a strong case to be made for more diversification. We should be beefing up our staffing in Canadian embassies overseas and making sure we understand the local markets and find new export markets. That will help us weather future storms. Building those personal relationships are a huge part of successful negotiations. 

Note, the responses were transcribed and have been shortened for length. If you are interested in watching full interviews, please visit the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association’s YouTube channel, which also houses the French interview with Bloc Quebecois Agriculture Critic, Yves Perron.  

This article was first published in Volume 2 Issue 2 of ABP Magazine (April 2022). Watch for more digital content from the magazine on ABP Daily.