The issue is confidentiality, say two key prairie-based packing companies involved in a standoff with the House of Commons agriculture committee over financial records.
They also question whether they even have documents that would answer the questions posed by MPs. Even if they do, MPs have no right to see them.
Cargill Foods and Lakeside Packers, owned by Tyson Foods, are the two most prominent packers to stand in contempt of Parliament this week for refusing to provide confidential financial information to the Commons clerk.
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In letters to the agriculture committee, the two American-owned companies made it clear they do not think the parliamentary request for their books is reasonable.
Committee members insist it is not a matter for the companies to decide. A parliamentary order has the force of law and individual MPs would not see the books but rather would be briefed by Parliament-appointed auditors.
On April 30, Cargill Foods Canadian business manager Willie Van Solkema wrote that despite committee guarantees of confidentiality, there is no statutory guarantee of that privacy.
“The committee is not able to adequately preserve the confidentiality of Cargill’s information and documents,” he wrote.
“Cargill respectfully submits that it would be an unreasonable intrusion on its privacy rights for the committee to continue to pursue Cargill’s confidential business information, especially under circumstances where the committee cannot fully preserve the confidentiality of that information.”
Cargill also told the committee that the multinational does not break down its books the way the committee suggests. Its books are North American, without detailed Canadian breakdowns.
“The information provided (in financial records) does not segment our financial data into different business activities and locations,” Van Solkema wrote.
“There are no legal requirements for Cargill to certify financial data that is segmented into different business activities and locations.”
Several days earlier, Lakeside Packers chief executive officer Garnet Altwasser told the committee its requests for documents were “confusing” and could not be met.
The committee wanted documents that show why prices paid to farmers fell by 50 percent after government help was announced, as well as what new BSE regulations added to packer costs and profit margins.
The company does not have documents that break out costs and profits in that way, he said.
Besides, Lakeside is a wholly owned subsidiary of American food giant Tyson Foods Inc. of Arkansas.
“As such, financial information such as that requested … is not available in a public forum and Lakeside must work within certain constraints of the corporate structure of Tyson Foods Inc. in accessing and disclosing such information,” Altwasser wrote.
Both companies told the MPs that the common goal of politicians and industry should be to get the U.S. border open to live Canadian cattle rather than dissect whether any segment of the besieged industry is doing better than another.
