AGRI Committee Meeting

Meeting No. 20

Wednesday, May 16, 2001

The Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food met at 3:44 p.m. this day, in Room 701, La Promenade Building, the Chair, Charles Hubbard, presiding.

Members of the Committee present: David L. Anderson, Murray Calder, Claude Duplain, Howard Hilstrom, Charles Hubbard, Rick Laliberte, Larry McCormick, Dick Proctor, Bob Speller, Paul Steckle, Suzanne Tremblay.

Acting Members present: Brian Fitzpatrick for Garry Breitkreuz, Alex Shepperd for Mark Eyking, Larry Bagnell for Rose-Marie Ur, Tony Tirabassi for Rose-Marie Ur.

In attendance: From the Library of Parliament: Frédéric Forge and Jean-Denis Fréchette, Research Officers.

Appearing: From the House of Commons: Larry McCormick, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food.

Witnesses: From the Farm Credit Corporation: John Ryan, President and Chief Executive Officer; Dale Canham, Vice-President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary; Louise Neveu, Executive Vice-President & Chief Knowledge Officer.

Pursuant to its Order of Reference of Tuesday, May 1st, 2001, the Committee resumed consideration of Bill C-25, An Act to amend the Farm Credit Corporation Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts (See Minutes of Proceedings, Thursday, May 3, 2001, Meeting No. 15).

The Committee proceeded to Clause-by-Clause consideration of the Bill.

Clause 1 carried on division.

Clause 2 carried on division.

On Clause 3,

Suzanne Tremblay moved, -- That Bill C-25, in Clause 3, be amended by adding after line 23 on page 1 the following:

""family farm" means a farming operation on which the operator and the operator's family live and in respect of which they make decisions, control the management and provide most of the work and the capital."
After debate, the question being put on the amendment, it was negatived on the following recorded division:

Clause 3 carried on division.

Clause 4 carried.

On Clause 5,

Howard Hilstrom moved, -- That Bill C-25, in Clause 5, be amended by replacing line 18 on page 2 with the following:

"farming operations, including family farms, and the services and products provided to farming operations shall not be less than 80 per cent of the Corporation's total portfolio."

After debate, the question being put on the amendment, it was negatived on the following recorded division:

Howard Hilstrom moved, -- That Bill C-25, in Clause 5, be amended by replacing line 18 on page 2 with the following:

"farming operations, including family farms and the value of services provided to businesses related to farming shall not exceed one million dollars per business."

After debate, the question being put on the amendment, it was negatived on division.

Howard Hilstrom moved, -- That Bill C-25, in Clause 5, be amended by replacing lines 38 and 39 on page 2 with the following:

"or to be used in a farming operation;"

The question being put on the amendment, it was negatived on division.

Howard Hilstrom moved, -- That Bill C-25, in Clause 5, be amended by replacing lines 42 and 43 on page 2 with the following:

"operations or in businesses whose majority ownership is held by farmers, within parameters that are satisfactory"

After debate, the question being put on the amendment, it was negatived on division.

Howard Hilstrom moved, -- That Bill C-25, in Clause 5, be amended

(a) by replacing line 43 on page 2 with the following:

"ing, not including farm lands, within parameters that are satisfactory"

(b) by adding after line 44 on page 2 the following:

"(f.4.1) despite paragraph (f.4), acquire farm lands as a result of default on a loan, provided that it is disposed of at fair market value as quickly as possible, and in any case no later than five years, after the acquisition;"

After debate, the question being put on the amendment, it was negatived on the following recorded division:

Clause 5 carried.

On new Clause ( 5.1 )

Dick Proctor moved, -- That Bill C-25 be amended by adding after line 7 on page 3 the following new clause:

"regulations
5.1 The Act is amended by adding the following after section 4:
4.1 The Governor in Council after consulting with members of the farming and money-lending communities may make regulations
(a) for carrying out the purposes and provisions of this Act; and
(b) defining the words "primarily" and "primary" in sections 2 and 4, respectively."

The question being put on the amendment, it was negatived.

New Clause ( 5.1 ) negatived on division.

Clause 6 carried on division.

Clause 7 carried on division.

On new Clause ( 7.1 )

Suzanne Tremblay moved, -- That Bill C-25 be amended by adding after line 13 on page 4 the following new clause:

"7.1 The Act is amended by adding the following after section 16:
APPLICATION OF THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGES ACT
16.1 For greater certainty, the Official Languages Act applies to the Corporation and the Corporation has the duty, under section 25 of that Act, to ensure that, where services are provided or made available by another person or organization on its behalf, any member of the public can communicate with and obtain those services from that person or organization in either official language, in any case where those services, if provided by the Corporation, would be required under Part IV of the Official Languages Act to be provided in either official language."

After debate, the Chair ruled that the amendment was not admissible for the following reason:

Ruling by the Chair

The proposed amendment would add a new clause to the bill in order to ensure that the Official Languages Act applies to the Farm Credit Corporation.

An amendment must always relate to the subject matter of the bill or the clause under consideration. Page 654 of the House of Commons Procedure & Practice states that "an amendment is inadmissible if it amends a statute that is not before the Committee or a section of the parent act unless it is being specifically amended by a clause of the Bill."

I must therefore regretfully rule your amendment not admissible.

Clause 8 to clause 22 carried severally, on division.

The Title carried.

The Bill, carried on the following recorded division:

ORDERED, -- That the Chair report Bill C-25 without amendment to the House as the First Report of the Committee.

At 5:10 p.m., the Committee adjourned to the call of the Chair.

Normand Radford
Committee Clerk