Between 10 February and 31 March 2022, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food studied the challenges faced by Canada’s food supply chain to recommend actions the Government of Canada can take to ensure the chain’s short-term flexibility and long-term resilience.

A well-functioning food supply chain not only helps Canadians remain healthy, but also helps ensure food security in countries that rely on Canadian agricultural imports. Multiple recent disruptions, including the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide shipping interruptions, the war in Ukraine, and climate change and extreme weather events, have brought to light and exacerbated some of the supply chain’s vulnerabilities.

Witnesses appearing before the Committee asked the government to act quickly to address these pressing challenges. Among other recommendations, they asked for immediate changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker program. The Committee also recommends that the federal government develop a national agriculture and agri-food labour strategy to respond to the sector’s long-term needs including measures to better attract and integrate young workers, workers over 65 years old, New Canadians, and refugees into the field.  This strategy should also, among other topics, examine necessary investments in automation and production efficiency and the corresponding changes in skills that such new technologies will require in the sector’s workforce.

The Government should also consider transport challenges that affect the agriculture and agri-food sector. In the short term, witnesses highlighted the challenges of concentration in the maritime transport sector and called on the federal government to direct a task force to identify immediate solutions to supply chain disruptions affecting container transport. In the long term, they recommended a future-oriented assessment of Canada’s transport system to ensure it will be able to handle future growth and action to ensure Canada’s railways deliver perishable goods in a timely manner.

Concentration is also an issue in the Canadian grocery sector. The Committee encourages the joint working group, composed of representatives from the federal and provincial governments and the private sector, to complete its work on a Code of Conduct for the sector to provide producers and processors with a more equitable and competitive business environment. It also recommends that this Code be applied as consistently as possible across the country.

The Committee also recommends that the federal government consider providing relief to producers by reducing red tape and exempting propane and natural gas used for essential agricultural activities from the federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Act. Noting their reliance on long international supply chains for essential inputs such as fertilizer, it also recommends measures to increase domestic production of these products and support for farmers affected by the federal government’s recent implementation of tariffs on Russian fertilizer.

Increasing long-term supply chain resilience was a key priority raised by witnesses. The Committee therefore recommends that the government invest in essential infrastructure adapted to climate change-related extreme weather events, support local food supply chains, and work towards the streamlining of interprovincial food and safety standards.