Agriculture committee  I don't think we have any evidence to back that up. I can give you a personal example. A neighbour of ours who does plow all his land that he puts into crop has the same problem as we do on our farm, where we use minimal tillage. This was only his second year growing wheat and his problem was as severe as ours.

Agriculture committee  Yes, we are.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, David. As we move forward, we believe our best method of long-term control will be through variety breeding to develop new varieties that are resistant to some of the problems we face. However, we all know that this takes a long time. We would like to acknowledge the work being conducted by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada across the country on this major national issue.

Agriculture committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. I'm Allan Ling. Actually, what we're going to do is make a joint presentation by the Island Grains and Protein Council and the Atlantic Grains Council. Can you hear us in Ottawa?

Agriculture committee  Again, good afternoon. We do apologize for not being there in person, the reason being that Mr. Mol and I are both farmers, and we're running about three weeks behind in our soybean harvest because of all the rain we've had in October. We could not take the chance of being away if today happened to be fine--which, of course, it isn't again.

Agriculture committee  I don't think it makes a difference what you call a program. There's nothing wrong with the word “CAIS”, and yes, I do believe it can be made to work for us. But the changes have to be made. And we have taken, across the country, some positive steps, like adding the NISA-like approach to the top tier.

Agriculture committee  In response to your question, I do believe Canada is a trading nation and we will continue to be. We can't put a fence around Canada. We have to be a player. I've never been in WTO negotiations or anything like that, but from the reports I hear, Canada plays a very strong role in our negotiations.

Agriculture committee  Thanks for those comments. I couldn't agree with you more. I believe that the feds come out with some good proposals, but they get stopped at the provincial level. We are very concerned about that 40-60 split. I also know that as a politician you can have some tremendous ideas and the will to do things properly, but they can get stalled and stopped forever in that bureaucracy that you guys have to deal with.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for the question. Yes, I do agree that we have to participate in this type of forum. I have participated in these a lot of times over my history in farming. When we did the consulting for the APF 1, the first round, I didn't feel the people who did that process got the right message back.

Agriculture committee  Good evening, and thanks for the opportunity to present our views on business risk management, something that is very important to us here in Atlantic Canada. First of all, I should take a few moments to introduce myself. I'm a member director of Island Grain and Protein Council Inc, which is an organization that speaks on behalf of grain and oilseeds producers in P.E.I.