MacAulay’s appearance sets off a feistier meeting than usual as opposition MPs ask about visit to China and crickets
REGINA — Crickets: it’s a word that could mean a few different things but turned out to be at least a couple of them during federal agriculture minister Lawrence MacAulay’s appearance at the House of Commons agriculture committee last week.
The minister was there to discuss the latest supplementary estimates, worth about $123 million. That includes $60 million for the Sustainable Canadian Agriculture Program, $25 million for the egg and poultry on-farm investment program and $20 million to renew and expand the local food infrastructure fund.
However, agriculture critic John Barlow first asked about MacAulay’s recent trip to Beijing and whether he had met with his Chinese counterpart to discuss the threat to Canadian canola. When the minister did not directly answer the question, some verbal sparring began, the chair stepped in and Liberal MP Francis Drouin raised a point of order.
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“If the opposition is insinuating that staying in your basement and doing international relations or trade from your basement is a good thing, then they should follow their leadership,” he said, as Barlow commented that isn’t a point of order.
Committee chair Kody Blois agreed with Barlow.
“Don’t make my job overly hard here today. That’s to everyone,” he said.
But then Barlow did ask about crickets.
In 2022, the department provided $8.5 million to Aspire Food Group to build a cricket factory that is now in financial trouble, Barlow said. He asked if the business plan had been reviewed before Aspire was given so much money.
In November, the cricket protein plant in London, Ont., cut 100 jobs, leaving 50. The company said it was changing production systems to improve yields, but a worker told local media that production was slow and none of the workers had received severance pay.
The federal investment was for construction and technology and came through AgriInnovate.
Barlow said the department gave the company another $500,000 last July and asked why a struggling business would get more money.
Tom Rosser, assistant deputy minister of the market and industry service branch, said commercial insect production is still essentially a start-up business.
“There is some risk associated with ventures of that nature,” he said.
Liberal MP Heath MacDonald, attending online, picked up on the day’s theme.
“There’s a lot of crickets in that room, minister. The PM visited the new incoming president in Washington. We never heard a word from the opposition praising that move,” he said.
MacDonald said the opposition also hasn’t said anything about supporting the new trade office in the IndoPacific.
The Conservatives and Liberals raised several more points of order during an unusually lively meeting.
In the end, the committee passed the estimates.
