44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 4, 2022 10:00AM
Mr. Speaker, the member for Guelph is absolutely right. The ability to share a meal among friends, among colleagues and sometimes among people whom you may not entirely agree with is so important to finding common ground. That is one of the great legacies of Anita Stewart. The member made a comment about an event we were at together at the University of Guelph. The comments from Dr. Yates, president of Guelph university, talked about those examples of where Anita was able to bring happiness and bring cheer to a room by sharing food. Whether on a university campus or in homes across the country, the ability to share those opportunities among all Canadians is so important.
Therefore, I thank the member for Guelph and I do believe he will be supporting this bill. I appreciate his support on this important matter.
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Mr. Speaker, I am so proud to stand up for the opportunity to discuss Bill S-227 to establish a national food day in Canada on the first Saturday of August. In Ontario, that always represents a long weekend.
I want to thank Senator Black and the member for Perth—Wellington for sponsoring this particular bill. I know they live in a beautiful region. For me, there would be no reason to be in that region other than love. My in-laws are from there, from Hensall in particular, but I drive through Perth to get to Huron—Bruce. There is always a great opportunity for me to go there for occasions. Obviously food is always part of that discussion.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank my father-in-law, Bob Forrest, who has always educated me on food. He is a farmer and taught with Senator Black at a local community college in the Hensall area. He always has great advice on particular food policies, so I want to thank him.
I want to thank Senator Black as well for having the audacity to present such an important bill. I think the member for Perth—Wellington did such an amazing job at describing what Dr. Anita Stewart put forward and the reasons she did that. I do not think I need to go back to that, because the member for Perth—Wellington did an excellent job with it.
I want to talk about what this bill will mean for Canadians. It has been raised in the House that food brings people together from all walks of life and from all political backgrounds, and we are able to have great conversations. Some of us will have beer and some will have a glass of wine, and we may be prone to sharing more ideas, but the idea here is to celebrate food and celebrate the people who work in the food industry, including farmers.
At home, I love to cook. I am the cook at home because I love food. I love to please my family when I get to make a good home-cooked meal, but it also relaxes me. I get to learn recipes and get to learn from what other chefs are publishing online. I try to mimic what they are doing. I do not know if I am successful or not. Nobody here can attest to whether I am successful or not since the witnesses are not here, but it is a great occasion for me and such a great opportunity to taste food, especially local food.
That is what food day will be all about. It will be about celebrating what our local farmers are doing and what our local chefs are doing. I love the fact that it is not just about the franchisees across Canada that are doing this. We are also seeing a rural renaissance of local chefs who are using locally grown food. I want to thank them for thinking about that.
When I talk about agriculture or the bill to establish the first Monday in August as food day in Canada, I think about the Poirier berry farm back home, which grows raspberries. They are not necessarily the red raspberries that we find in supermarkets or grocery stores. They are special raspberries.
I want to thank Claude for his considerable efforts to promote local agriculture and create events on his farm that bring together people who work in the agri-food industry locally. I am thinking about the Eastern Ontario Agri-Food Network, which also promotes local food. I am also thinking about other stakeholders in our community.
I could not talk about agriculture and food without mentioning St. Albert cheese, a co‑operative that supports our local farmers and dairy producers. The member for Perth—Wellington mentioned that he too has the opportunity to represent them, since his riding has the largest number of dairy, egg and poultry producers.
I too have this opportunity in my riding. I am very proud of it, and I am very aware that our dairy farmers get up every morning to milk the cows. They do it again every evening.
We have talked about mental health and I think it is important to raise this issue. When our farmers have a medical certificate indicating they have to stay home, they are still staying in their place of work. That must be said. Therefore, on the first Saturday of August, it is important to celebrate the entire Canadian agri-food sector, but it is also important to think about our farmers and their mental health. I do not believe this aspect gets the attention it should.
Furthermore, the media do not talk about our farmers often enough. This day would be an occasion to showcase our farmers in the media. We have to talk more often of the excellent work done by farmers.
Today, in the House, we talked about resilience. Our farmers were resilient during COVID‑19. I am thinking, among other things, about all the supply chains that were repositioned. When I went to the food banks during COVID‑19, I could tell people that the egg producers had the generosity to make massive donations to food banks across Canada. Average eggs are usually sent to the restaurant sector, but since the restaurants were closed, the producers could no longer give them their eggs. I want to thank Canada's egg producers who worked very hard to ensure that these eggs were not wasted.
Our government brought in a food policy a few years ago. I think that more than $125 million has been invested to create a more resilient local infrastructure and to create local gardens. People mentioned Dr. Yates, from the University of Guelph, and I know that if the member for Guelph had the opportunity, she would mention her as well.
How do we attract talent to the agri-food industry? We often talk about using food to attract that talent. I also want to thank Dr. Evan Fraser, an incredible thinker who is also from the University of Guelph. I have had conversations with him, and we could talk for days on end. He is intelligent, forward-thinking and very passionate about agriculture. Dr. Fraser thinks about what agriculture will look like in five, 10 or 15 years, but also in 20 or 30 years. We need these kinds of thinkers to support our farmers in Canada.
I will conclude my speech by once again thanking my colleague from Perth—Wellington and expressing my full support for his bill.
I also want to thank Senator Black, who has worked in the agri-food industry for years. We need more people talking about agriculture and agri-food in the House. It is important. There is not a single Canadian today who can survive without food. We need to thank all Canadian farmers; they feed Canadians and they feed whole cities.
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Mr. Speaker, food unites us. Food brings us together. It is particularly important during these times of division and strife around the world.
Everyone loves food, including things like poutine, tourtière and Lac‑Saint‑Jean blueberries.
Everyone loves food and we all love Canadian food, like tourtière, poutine, Malpeque oysters or maple syrup with pancakes and peameal bacon. We all love butter tarts, although I am treading on dangerous water because we can get into a debate about whether they should be with raisins or without and who exactly makes the best butter tarts. However, we all love Canadian food, whether it is Alberta barley-fed steak or Ontario corn-fed roast beef shared over a glass of Ontario or British Columbia wine.
I would like to add my support for this bill in the House. I would like to thank the hon. member for Perth—Wellington for sponsoring the bill in the House. It has been passed in the Senate, and I encourage all of my colleagues in the House to support this bill.
Food Day Canada started in 2003. Since then, it has been taking place on the Saturday of the August long weekend. This is the time of year when farmers markets are brimming with the many locally produced agricultural products that are freshly available, patios and restaurants are full of patrons and barbecues are in high season. Food Day Canada is a celebration in praise of Canadian farmers and fishers, chefs and researchers, and home cooks. On this day, everyone is encouraged to celebrate, to shop, to cook and to dine Canadian.
Food Day Canada's website contains numerous Canadian recipes that can be created using local Canadian ingredients, such as Saskatoon oat and seed bread, red lentil crusted albacore tuna with Beluga lentil and cherry tomato vinaigrette, and apple and cider cobbler. Our country has so much to offer when it comes to authentic Canadian cuisine and each Canadian recipe tells a story about who we are.
On Food Day Canada, events take place across the country at various restaurants and locations. Buildings are also lit up red and white in celebration, including at Charlottetown City Hall, the Montreal Tower, Toronto's CN Tower, the Alberta Legislature Building and the Vancouver Convention Centre. It is a true coming together of agriculture, aquaculture and the culinary communities of Canada. It is a day to shine a light on Canadian cuisine. Despite all this, though, Food Day Canada has not yet been designated a commemorative day in Canada and passing the bill in the House today will formally recognize this day and the importance of Canadian cuisine to our culture, our identity and our heritage.
Food Day Canada was founded by the late Anita Stewart. I got to know Anita not only as a constituent in Elora and before that, as the mother of sons I went to high school with at Centre Wellington District High School in Fergus, Ontario. I later got to know her as a passionate advocate for Canadian food. It is due to her vision, dedication and perseverance that Food Day Canada has become the national event that it is. Passing this bill honours the legacy of Anita Stewart and her contributions to Canadian cuisine.
Anita Stewart founded Food Day Canada nearly 20 years ago. A member of the Order of Canada, founder of Cuisine Canada and the University of Guelph's food laureate, she was an incredible advocate for Canadian food and farmers. Sadly, Anita was diagnosed with cancer and passed away in October of 2020. She was a food writer, a food journalist and a self-described food activist. She was tireless in championing Canadian food, Canadian farmers and Canadian cuisine and was always looking for a new recipe and connecting that to the farmers who produced the ingredients.
She grew up in rural Wellington County and from those rural roots, she went everywhere across this country. Anita went over the side of icebreakers into work boats in the north Pacific to visit every manned light station on that coast and meet their keepers. She travelled by dogsled and snowmobile to Cree hunt camps in northern Quebec. She went to Hibernia, which she called the most easterly bastion of Canadian cuisine on this continent. She scuba dived for sea cucumbers and urchin in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and bucktail fly-fished for salmon in Discovery Passage.
She was an amazing storyteller about Canadian food, producing over a dozen Canadian cookbooks. One of her early works was co-written with Jo Marie Powers, titled The Farmers' Market Cookbook. It featured recipes collected from vendors at farmers' markets. Each recipe identified the market and the vendor where the recipe came from.
In her book, The Lighthouse Cookbook, Anita presented recipes from the keepers of British Columbia's lighthouses, including traditional clam chowder and mussels in wild mushrooms. Some other works by Anita include Country Inn Cookbook, The St. Lawrence Market Cookbook, and Northern Bounty: A Celebration of Canadian Cuisine.
It was through her cookbooks that my wife, Carrie, and I further got to know Anita. When we were first planning our wedding, 20 years ago this month, we came across a cookbook, titled Great Canadian Cuisine: The contemporary flavours of Canadian Pacific Hotels by Anita Stewart, on Carrie's grandmother's coffee table. One thing led to another. We met up with Anita, and her son, using that cookbook, prepared the most amazing wedding meal for all of the guests.
Through her written works, Anita did more than share recipes, she brought to life the story of Canadian food and the people behind it. She was the first, as many have mentioned, University of Guelph food laureate, believed to be the first at any university in Canada. As food laureate, she continued to champion Canadian cuisine, providing advocacy and leadership across academic and administrative departments.
She had a profound impact on the University of Guelph and on Wellington County. The Anita Stewart Memorial Food Laboratory at the university continues to “actively promote the growth and study of our Canadian food systems and cultures.” In deep recognition of her contributions to Canadian cuisine and culture, she was invested into the Order of Canada in 2012, one of our country's highest honours.
Just as Anita was passionate about Canadian cuisine, so too are her sons. She passed along that passion to her sons, Jeff, Mark, Brad and Paul. All four have had a great impact on Canadian cuisine and co-founded Food Day Canada with her. They also continue serve on Food Day Canada's board of directors. Jeff, who is Red Seal certified as a chef and sommelier, previously stated the following about his mom:
My mother was a real force in Canada, but also a real force in our family.... The amazing thing is the legacy she left behind and all the amazing connections of people who are supporting what she started.
Following her all too early passing, Niagara Falls was lit up in red and white to honour her and her life's work. There is no doubt that Canada is better for her contributions to Canadian cuisine.
This bill in front of us honours the legacy Anita Stewart left behind. It would also ensure that Canadian cuisine from coast to coast is honoured and celebrated each and every year. I encourage all of my colleagues here in the House to support this bill.
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