Agriculture committee  It would apply if they're small shippers on the smaller lines or larger shippers on the large lines. I think the problem is universal across all shippers. The railways can't be held accountable.

Agriculture committee  Our farmers in Saskatchewan...and I'm sure Barry knows what the pressure is like. We'll talk about the livestock industry in Alberta, where there is money going in and there are certainly more incentives on the provincial side. I think when that's happening, what we're talking a

Agriculture committee  When you ask how much money is needed, one of the problems for a lot of people in western Canada with the CAIS program is we actually can't predict clearly what the program covers, so it's really hard to know with any clarity what we would need when in many ways we don't know how

Agriculture committee  Good morning. My name is Richard Phillips. I'm the executive director of the Grain Growers of Canada, and my wife and I still maintain a grain farm in Saskatchewan. With me today is a director of the Grain Growers of Canada, Mr. Leo Meyer. Leo is a grains and oilseeds farmer fr

Agriculture committee  Just in closing on the fertilizer point, what we see is a huge demand for this fertilizer around the world, and as Canadian producers, we're going to be competing to keep those products here in Canada. What can the committee do? What can the government do? I think if there's anyt

Agriculture committee  What we don't know is are there other barriers out there? Why have there been no new entrants into the mining industry? Are there barriers out there that can be dealt with to get more competition? Because competition is what brings down the price. And I think FNA would fully agre

Agriculture committee  We also want to comment on the transportation, as to what exactly you can do. I think what we need to see is a level of service review, both for the industrial shippers but also for the grain shippers. That costs, just on the income side, certainly western Canadian farmers. The

Agriculture committee  I'm not sure I have the wisdom of the people around this table on that one. I guess that would take some study and work on what exactly the barriers are. Is there property out there that can be mined that's not being mined, and why isn't it? Are people holding onto properties and

Agriculture committee  No.

Agriculture committee  Go ahead and ask your question first.

Agriculture committee  I think I'd concur. I'm not sure we can regulate. For every regulation government creates, farmers will find a way around it--that's just kind of the nature of the beast--or other business people find ways around it. Some of the work we've done is on harmonizing and opening the

Agriculture committee  Yes, we could be a lot tougher yet. We'd be glad to put a submission in to you at a later date on some of the things. I think you would find a lot of the groups signing on to that sort of issue.

Agriculture committee  Just following upon that, one thing we've discussed but which we haven't put forward as a formal proposal was whether cash advances could be moved ahead and made earlier, so that you could take advantage, because even if the fertilizer price is going up, there are local over-supp

Agriculture committee  Actually, that flagged an issue. Thank you for the question. It actually follows up with Mrs. Skelton's question as well. We recently met with the Canadian Association of Agri-Retailers. They were talking about some of the new regulations and provisions for security that are com

Agriculture committee  Thank you. He touched on the biodiesel part from the Grain Growers; I'll just touch on some ethanol thoughts. I have five brief reasons why we are happy to see an ethanol industry develop and why we would support Bill C-33. Number one—and I'm speaking more from a western Can