The committee met at 10:04 a.m.

[R. Leonard in the chair.]

Deliberations

R. Leonard (Chair): I would like to call the Select Standing Committee on Agriculture, Fish and Food to order, on this Friday, for our last deliberations.

Motion to go in camera, please. Moved by Jackie, seconded by Nicholas.

Motion approved.

The committee continued in camera from 10:04 a.m. to 11:37 a.m.

[R. Leonard in the chair.]

R. Leonard (Chair): Welcome back to the session of the Select Standing Committee on Agriculture, Fish and Food, following our deliberations. I want to say, first of all, thank you to everyone sitting here today for working collaboratively, for having open ears and open minds, to come to a place where we are going to see, I think, from our report, some growth in the industry.

I think it’s going to be a good day when this report is finally out in the public and we can start to see some positive movement forward throughout British Columbia.

Would anybody else like to add anything before we go towards the motion?

D. Routley: Could we, at this point, thank our staff for the excellent work they did in synthesizing all the views that people had and presenting them in the way that we considered them and to the Hansard staff, who did such a spectacular job travelling around the province, creating public meetings, sometimes two a day, in far-removed communities? Thank you very much.

R. Leonard (Chair): Yes, thank you, Doug. And for keeping us on time.

J. Tegart (Deputy Chair): I would also like to thank every­one who participated. This is a subject matter around food and food security that is critically important to British Columbia. Our report reflects the work and the honesty and the passion that people have for the work that they do in this industry.

I would be the first to say I’m not an expert in agriculture, but the way that people were willing to open up and to share their experiences gave all of us sitting around this table the opportunity to understand what hard work it is to produce food for people in British Columbia and in the world.

I would like to thank everyone who took the opportunity to open their industry to us and answer some questions that probably they sometimes thought were pretty dumb. I had never heard of a kill floor. I had no idea what processes were used to produce our meat. I have to say that I was so impressed with the passion that people bring to the work they do in producing food for all of us.

[11:40 a.m.]

To those out there who educated us, thank you very much. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your commitment.

And thank you to staff and the committee members. We all gave it everything we had. Hopefully, this report helps the industry move forward in a very, very positive way. Our intent was to help the industry grow and to do that in a way so that it is a respectful and honourable industry. I think the report…. As people read it, they will see that.

N. Simons: I’d like to thank the Chair and the Deputy Chair for helping us wade through difficult issues and a complex process. I think all members of the committee should be pleased that British Columbians saw us in action. Many of them probably hadn’t ever talked to a politician before, and there we were, in their communities, listening to what they had to say. I think the welcome that we got and the generous nature of the contributors was really appreciated by us.

It was an important and good process. Again, thanks to the staff for their invaluable assistance.

R. Leonard (Chair): As a newly elected MLA and to be involved in this kind of process, you really…. As Jackie said, we are babes in the woods when it comes to some of these subjects and the opportunity to hear from the public. It has to be an inclusive and welcoming place, and the staff did a tremendous job of making that happen and, just by creating the atmosphere for those meetings, making it possible for people to participate and feel heard.

I thank the staff for poring…. I appreciate all the words that everyone’s spoken about the staff, for all of their hard work and their support for us. We really shine, I think, because of them, in terms of being able to move forward with the task that we’ve been given.

I think, at this point, we could make the motion. Who would like to move?

Committee Report to the House

REPORT ON
MEAT PRODUCTION AND INSPECTION

I. Paton: I’ll move:

[That the Select Standing Committee on Agriculture, Fish and Food approve and adopt the report on local meat production and inspection in B.C. as amended today and further, that the Committee authorize the Chair and Deputy Chair to work with Committee staff to finalize any further editorial changes to complete the supporting text.]

R. Leonard (Chair): Moved by Ian, seconded by Mike.

Motion approved.

D. Routley: I move:

[That the Chair of the Select Standing Committee on Agriculture, Fish and Food present the Committee’s report to the Legislative Assembly at the earliest available opportunity.]

R. Leonard (Chair): Moved by Doug, seconded by Nicholas.

Motion approved.

R. Leonard (Chair): I thank everyone for their work and their contributions. I would like a motion to adjourn.

D. Barnett: Could I just ask a question before we adjourn, Chair?

R. Leonard (Chair): Certainly.

Other Business

D. Barnett: We were tasked with doing a report on fish farms, if I’m correct, were we not?

R. Leonard (Chair): Not fish farms but wild fish policy.

D. Barnett: Wild fish policy. My question is: could we get the terms of reference for that and what kinds of parameters we are going to work around? I would really appreciate it.

R. Leonard (Chair): Okay. Jennifer informs me that the terms of reference can be shared, of course. They were part of the last day of the Legislature. Our terms of reference were approved.

In terms of the parameters, that’s still, apparently, a work in progress. There will have to be an amendment to the terms of reference to be able to give us that direction. That’s why we’re sort of in a holding pattern at the moment.

D. Barnett: Will they change, also, the time for the report to be done by, be extended?

R. Leonard (Chair): Can I have a motion to move us back in camera?

D. Barnett: I move we go back in camera.

Motion approved.

The committee continued in camera from 11:45 a.m. to 11:52 a.m.

[R. Leonard in the chair.]

J. Tegart (Deputy Chair): Just a comment in regards to the report as it moves forward in the process. I would certainly hope, as a committee, that we don’t say our work is done. This is a very, very important industry in British Columbia. I’m not sure in regards to the relationship with the Ministry of Agriculture from this committee, but I would hope that we, in a timely way, keep tabs on where they are with the recommendations that came out of this committee.

I think too often reports are written, they’re put on shelves, and everybody feels good at the time. I really think that we have some good information in here that people expect us to act on.

D. Routley: I fully agree. That explains, in large measure, the urgency of the work that the committees have been doing. Many of the committees and council have important work that’s being pressed for completion so that it can enter the cycle of the legislative calendar and whatnot, so that exactly what the member has asked for will happen and so that there might be legislative change and places in the budget for the things that we’ve recommended. I think it explains the haste.

R. Leonard (Chair): Yes.

M. Morris: Motion to adjourn.

Motion approved.

The committee adjourned at 11:53 a.m.