Agriculture committee  Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. Thanks for the opportunity to appear before you today. Our chairman, Andy MacGillivray, is unavailable. He is actually out of the country, in Central America, working with some producer groups on behalf of his cooperative, so he extends his regr

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chairman, I'm going to turn for a few minutes to Mr. Matte to explain further the issue around MPCs and MPIs.

Agriculture committee  I'll ask Mr. Leroux to finalize our opening remarks.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for your patience, Mr. Chair. We wanted to make sure those key points were made.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Steckle. First off, what remarks did I make that were scathing and critical of supply management?

Agriculture committee  I think I particularly emphasize that our concern is based on our desire to save the system to make sure it doesn't collapse in terms of the competitive marketplace pressures we're feeling. I think, in response to your observations about the competition, we are facing a much more

Agriculture committee  Let me start by indicating that we don't think there are a few difficulties in the industry; we think there are many. There are very difficult and profound issues that really need to be addressed. The MPC/MPI issue is a symptom and one issue out of many. Mr. Bellavance, you m

Agriculture committee  I believe the chairman read the mandate of this discussion. I think it's related specifically to the use of MPCs and the imports of MPCs/MPIs. It would not be a correct figure if what we're here to discuss is MPCs/MPIs. There's a host of dairy ingredients that go way beyond MPCs/

Agriculture committee  I'll just add to Mr. Matte's comments that the numbers, if they were crunched out.... First off, if you were going to make the necessary major investment in ultrafiltration to create these MPIs in Canada, you'd have to compete with sophisticated companies in New Zealand and in Eu

Agriculture committee  The first question is the question we're all asking ourselves--everyone around this table. The minister put forward a very good recommendation a month ago that we, the processors and the producers, should sit together and examine all these issues that we've put on the table and t

Agriculture committee  Yes, of course. That's why we're in business.

Agriculture committee  No. I disagree with that last comment. I believe the MPI issue is manageable. I've already addressed the numbers with respect to the.... The macro number is being referenced for a wide range of imported dairy ingredients, but the MPI, I think, is very manageable. Mr. Matte and

Agriculture committee  No, absolutely not. It has nothing to do with the nutritional value; in fact, as Mr. Matte said earlier, these are superior products that are imported and used. They are used around the world in making cheese, in most other jurisdictions, including France and the U.S.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will respect the patience of the committee members, and I'll certainly stick to eight or nine minutes with my introductory remarks. Mr. Chairman and committee members, the dairy processors welcome the opportunity of assisting your committee in its stu

Agriculture committee  No, not really. I think the concerns are more oriented to other commodity groups--the horticultural area and so on--and there is not abuse or misuse or confusion when it comes to dairy products, either by the suppliers or at the consumer level. My only comment, though, is that o