Battlefords-Lloydminster MP Gerry Ritz was in his riding Monday after a few eventful days in the American capital the week before.
The federal Agriculture and Agri-Foods minister had been in Washington for a series of meetings last week with House and Senate Agricultural Committee members, where he stood firm in calling for an end to Country of Origin Labeling.
In remarks to the noon-hour audience of Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club members at the Tropical Inn in North Battleford, Ritz once again condemned COOL labeling. He said the mandatory labeling “caused discrimination and segregation of our animals costing our industry somewhere between $1.2 and $1.5 billion dollars annually.”
To make up the shortfall, Ritz said “we’ve really hustled” and “are now marketing tremendous amount of more product into Japan, Korea, China, India, Indonesia, places like that that we did not really consider primary markets for quite some time.”
The controversy, however, came from recent comments by U.S. congressman Paul Ryan, who in a speech suggested kicking Canada and Japan out of the trade talks for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
In speaking to reporters Ritz did not seem concerned.
“He actually made a lot more comments than excluding us from the trade talks,. He actually did chastise his own government for not having the fast-track ability to sign a trade deal. So he was predicating his comments on ‘as much as it would be nice to say Canada and Japan aren’t measuring up to their expectations, they have to look in the mirror and look at themselves as well.’
“He made his comments when I was in Washington, so of course we reacted to them, but when you look at the full body of his address, it’s a lot more balanced than just saying ‘we’re going to kick Canada out.’”
He added “we’ll continue to be a valued member at the TPP table, we’ll be there to the bitter end, we’re not going to walk away by any stretch. But we’re going to take advantage of and push hard into the Pacific Rim, finalize the Canada-European Free Trade agreement, and make sure we’ve got other avenues rather than just relying on the American markets.”
Ritz was hopeful the new composition of the U.S. Congress, with the Republicans controlling both houses, might mean some progress on COOL labeling. He did point out “they still have a quagmire even with them having the majority in both houses, the president has a veto.”
Still, “we’re buoyed by the fact that the chairs of both houses’ Ag committee have put an ultimatum down — let’s get this country of origin labeling fixed. And they’re not looking at anything short of repeal, which is very helpful to us.”
He adds it was “up to the administration to come forward that actually addresses the shortfall, that is actually in the best interests of and adjudicated by Canada and Mexico to pass the smell test.”
That was just one of a wide range of topics Ritz spoke about during the luncheon, which mainly focused on government initiatives.
Oil prices was one item. Ritz acknowledged the situation in the oil patch, though he added “we’re not just an oil resource economy in Saskatchewan or Canada for that matter.”
Another topic of interest was the “concern about rail logistics in this country,” referring to the contentious topic of the backlog of grain transport by the rail companies.
He pointed to the government’s efforts including legislation on minimum volumes that they expect CN and CP to handle.
During the question-and-answer session one audience member encouraged Ritz to not “let them off the hook,” referring to the rail companies.
Ritz’s response was to say more work was still to be done. “As a free-market driven government we’re loathe to regulate but at the end of the day you can’t have one of the major elements of the supply chain doing less than service.”
Also, despite some of the speculation at the beginning of the year about a possible early election call, Ritz reiterated his belief that the federal election date will be Oct. 19, as per the fixed election date law. “I don’t see any change coming,” said Ritz.
