Bloc leader Yves-Francois Blanchet has named Yves Perron, the rookie MP for Berthier-Maskinonge, as the party’s critic for agriculture, agri-food and supply management.

As the Bloc’s ag critic, Perron replaces Mirabel MP Simon Marcil, who Blanchet named Nov. 6 to handle the public safety file.

Perron, a high school social studies teacher by profession, was named last year as president of the party’s executive, a post he held leading into last month’s federal election.

In the Oct. 21 election, Perron unseated the Berthier-Maskinonge riding’s incumbent New Democrat MP, former NDP House leader and ag critic Ruth Ellen Brosseau, by a spread of 1,502 votes. Brosseau had defeated Perron by 8,905 votes in 2015.

As critic for agriculture and supply management, Perron is already expected to be on point when the party returns to the Commons on Dec. 5. Blanchet, in a separate release Tuesday, listed compensation for supply-managed producers and processors as one of the Bloc’s four priority issues.

Quebec’s dairy farmers must “absolutely” receive cheques before Christmas, Blanchet said Tuesday, referring to compensation promised for supply-managed sectors against market access granted to imported dairy products through the Canada-EU (CETA) and Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade pacts.

Other supply-managed farmers and processors, who so far have been “completely left on their own,” deserve specific announcements “in the coming weeks,” he added.

The federal government in August announced $345 million in direct payments to dairy producers for year one of its previously promised eight-year, $1.75 billion compensation package.

Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said in August that the government “will continue to work with the Dairy Farmers of Canada to determine terms and conditions for future years,” and did not rule out further direct payments. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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NDP leader Jagmeet Singh on Thursday named Alistair MacGregor as critic for agriculture and agri-food, a role in which he’ll also serve as second vice-chair of the Commons standing committee on agriculture.

As ag critic, MacGregor replaces Quebec MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau, who Singh promoted Thursday to become the party’s House leader in the Commons. In that post, she replaces B.C. MP Peter Julian, who Singh named as finance critic.

Brosseau, the party’s lead agriculture critic since 2015, will also remain attached to the agriculture file as deputy critic, a post she’d previously held since 2012.

MacGregor, who was first elected in 2015 as MP for the Vancouver Island riding of Cowichan-Malahat-Langford, had previously worked as a constituency staffer for local NDP MP Jean Crowder.

Before working for Crowder, MacGregor, who has degrees from the University of Victoria and Royal Roads University, worked as a tree planter, crew boss and supervisor. He also served two years as a board member of the Cowichan Green Community Society, an organization focused on food security.

On his MP blog, MacGregor wrote the ag critic post is “a role I am incredibly excited to take on because of the personal interest I have in the subject.”

MacGregor and his family own a “small farming property” in the Cowichan Valley, which he said “we are working hard to bring into production with the planting of fruits, nuts and vegetables, and the raising of sheep, chickens, ducks and turkeys.”

On policy matters, he said Thursday in a separate release, “the issues surrounding how we produce and consume our food are always on the forefront of the national conversation, and I am looking forward to leading the development of NDP policy on these matters and holding the government to account.”

Since his election to the Commons, MacGregor served from November 2015 to early last year as the NDP’s critic for seniors, and for most of last year as justice critic. — AGCanada.com Network

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Federal Conservative and NDP agriculture critics David Anderson and Ruth Ellen Brosseau separately took the government to task this week over the costs producers have to shoulder after their herds were quarantined over possible exposure to bovine tuberculosis (TB).

As of Wednesday, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, six cattle in a southeastern Alberta herd have so far been confirmed with bovine TB after a cow from the herd turned up TB-positive in September at a U.S. packing plant.

Including that index herd, CFIA said Wednesday, there are now “over 35 premises” under quarantine, mostly in Alberta with “fewer than five” in Saskatchewan.

Anderson, in the Commons Tuesday, said “lives and livelihoods are being destroyed” and producers “need funding to cover the additional feed costs caused by the CFIA’s mandatory quarantine.”

A compensation funding formula has long been available for livestock producers whose herds or flocks are ordered destroyed in outbreaks of reportable diseases such as TB or avian flu, but no such formula is in place to cover costs incurred due to quarantine alone.

Affected producers, Anderson said, also need the CFIA’s response centre to “openly and directly involve producers.”

Martin Shields, the Tory MP for the southern Alberta riding of Bow River, said in a release Tuesday that local veterinarians should also be called in to help CFIA with testing.

“Many ranchers cannot wait weeks for this process to be completed,” he said. “There are many qualified veterinarians in my riding that could be working under the supervision of CFIA staff.”

Anderson said the governing Liberals on Tuesday prevented MPs from summoning CFIA officials before the Commons standing committee on agriculture.

Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay responded in the Commons Tuesday that he has “asked my department to look into options for providing assistance to ranchers who are under quarantine.”

MacAulay said he has also asked CFIA to “expedite payments for affected herds where cattle have to be destroyed” and to ensure “additional staff to support investigations, including on-farm testing.”

In Tuesday’s committee hearing, Brosseau said, “we heard alarming testimony from beef producers whose herds are under quarantine and are losing thousands of dollars a day.

“It’s outrageous that the Liberals aren’t stepping in with financial help,” she said, alleging it “also appears that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency delayed launching its emergency measures.”

The Tories on Tuesday also called for an expansion of CFIA’s emergency response team to include representation from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Health Canada, trade officials, local cattlemen and industry representatives.

“A central command centre in southeastern Alberta would give ranchers an opportunity to communicate their needs and receive detailed, timely and accurate information,” Anderson said.

CFIA said last week its operations centre in Calgary has been “fully activated” since Oct. 24 and its emergency response plans are “scalable depending on the nature of the event.”

The bovine TB issue, Brosseau said Wednesday, “raises questions about our capacity as a country to deal with this type of crisis.” — AGCanada.com Network

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NDP leader Tom Mulcair on Thursday announced Ruth Ellen Brosseau, the MP for the central Quebec riding of Berthier–Maskinonge since 2011, as the party’s critic for agriculture and agri-food, replacing defeated Niagara-area MP Malcolm Allen.

Brosseau, now 31, was among the crop of rookie Quebec MPs the party brought forward in 2012 to develop their chops in critic and deputy critic portfolios, after they’d rode an orange wave into official Opposition in the 2011 election.

An assistant manager at a Carleton University campus pub in Ottawa before the 2011 election, Brosseau as a candidate gained brief national notoriety that year for sticking to her pre-election plans for a Vegas vacation in the middle of the campaign.

She’d been viewed as a “parachute” candidate — a longshot dropped into Berthier–Maskinonge to keep the NDP on the ballot there against a Bloc Quebecois incumbent — and was also ribbed after the election for having limited French, at the time, in a solidly francophone riding.

Working with Allen on the agriculture file, however, Brosseau devoted time to the development of a Canadian food strategy, a prominent NDP initiative. She also served as vice-chair of the Commons standing committee on agriculture and agri-food for just over a year starting in February 2014.

As deputy ag critic, Brosseau also took point on issues facing the agrifood industry such as farms’ and processors’ access to temporary foreign workers, compensation for dairy producers following the signing of the Canada/EU free trade agreement, and food waste.

With the NDP now returned to second-opposition status, Mulcair has also brought forward rookies to serve on critic files of interest to farmers, including Tracey Ramsey, MP for the southern Ontario riding of Essex and, pre-election, a Ford employee, as trade critic.

Other critics on files of interest to farmers include Christine Moore, the MP for Abitibi–Temiscamingue since 2011, handling rural affairs, and Linda Duncan, an Edmonton MP since 2008, handling the transport portfolio. — AGCanada.com Network

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