A vegetable and greenhouse grower from New Brunswick has been elected chair of the House of Common’s agriculture committee.
Two other farmers were also elected chairs of committees last week.
Pat Finnigan, who represents Miramichi-Grand Lake, is a rookie MP elected in the Liberal red sweep of Atlantic Canada in last fall’s election.
“I’m a career farmer, probably a different kind of a farmer than you would see out west,” he said in an interview after the committee met for the first time Feb. 3.
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However, he said he recognizes western issues, namely grain handling and transportation, and said he will rely on western MPs to help him understand.
“I know I won’t become an expert overnight. That’s why the committee around the table,” he said, adding that there are organizations across the country with their fingers on the pulse of what farmers need.
He expects to see those organizations before the committee.
The next agricultural policy framework and the Canadian Transportation Act review are two items he said the committee will likely discuss.
On the policy framework, Finnigan said farmers need business risk management tools, and those in his riding expressed concern about cuts.
“It’s been changed or modified so much in the last few years some farmers are still having a hard time to understand it and apply it to their farm,” he said of Agri-Stability.
Finnigan grew up on a small farm and attended Nova Scotia Agricultural College, where he obtained a botany degree. His father was a pioneer in the brussels sprouts industry.
“Field crops was my specialty, but after working a couple of years with the department of agriculture, I had the opportunity to extend my knowledge in greenhouse production and from there I eventually started my own business,” he said.
The business is a family farm established in the late 1970s as Mr. Tomato, which includes greenhouse vegetables, annuals, ornamentals, and a non-farm market with a bakery and gift shop. The vegetables are now certified organic.
The market has expanded several times and to several locations.
Finnigan said he was never involved in politics but was extensively involved in community and agricultural organizations. That included a term as chair of the Agricultural Alliance of New Brunswick and time as a board member of the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council.
“It opened my eyes to the national scope of agriculture at the time, especially on the human resource and labour side,” he said.
However, he was approached a couple of years ago and, despite thinking he didn’t have a chance, won a five-way nomination race in the riding where forestry, fisheries and agriculture are the three main industries.
“For me it’s been certainly a change of pace, a learning curve. We’re right in the process right now of transition with our farm. That’s probably going to take place over the next year.”
Bev Shipley, a Conservative MP from Ontario and the previous chair, is the first vice-chair of the committee. Ruth Ellen Brosseau, an NDP member from Quebec and also a previous committee member, is the second vice-chair.
Meanwhile, Mark Eyking, the previous Liberal agriculture critic and a former vegetable grower from Nova Scotia, is chair of the international trade committee, and Wayne Easter, a long-time Prince Edward Island MP, former cabinet minister and former National Farmers Union president, will chair the finance committee.
Judy Sgro heads the transport committee.
