Ontario Conservative MP and former farmer Bev Shipley is the new chair of the House of Commons agriculture committee.
He was nominated at the committee’s first meeting of the new parliamentary session Oct. 24, replacing former Brandon MP Merv Tweed, who resigned his seat this summer to become president of Omnitrax, which owns the railway to Hudson Bay.
Shipley, 66, was elected in 2006 from a rural riding near London, Ont. He owned a purebred dairy operation and a cash crop farm.
Shipley once sat on the agriculture committee and more recently has been on the trade committee.
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The committee meets again Oct. 29 to begin to plot out an agenda for the winter session.
Shipley said he expects that the agricultural implications of the recently negotiated trade deal with the European Union will be on the committee agenda.
Other agenda items will likely include hearings on the strength of federal-provincial business risk management programs now that commodity prices are falling.
The April 1 launch of the new agricultural policy framework significantly reduced coverage under business risk management programs.
“Obviously, if members want to discuss that, it could be an issue,” said Shipley. “There is nothing new about agricultural cycles. Perhaps what was surprising, at least for crops, was how long the last one lasted.”
