Agriculture committee  I met with Minister Strahl a little over a month ago, and he assured me personally that the proposal we had put forward was at the centre of all their discussions.

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chairman, I could speak to that. There is virtually no difference between the proposal that our board put forward and one that the Tobacco Farmers in Crisis have also put forward to government. Within our community of growers, there is overwhelming support for our strategy.

Agriculture committee  Yes, in response to Mr. Atamanenko's question. We have been working very closely with the government on this issue. We've made our initial proposal to them. We're waiting for a response to that proposal. We appreciate the level of serious consideration that the issue has been gi

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chair, if I may, it's an excellent question. In our opinion, it started with government policy to reduce smoking and high taxation on the product. That has caused this major underground economy in cigarettes, most of which come in from other jurisdictions, the U.S., the Far

Agriculture committee  That's a bit of a multi-part question. As far as what farmers are going to do next is concerned, we're in a very unique part of the country. It's called the Norfolk Sand Plain. Many of you will know that prior to tobacco production coming into that area, that area was a dust bowl

Agriculture committee  I can't speak for Quebec. The Norfolk Sand Plain is over 100,000 acres of that type of land.

Agriculture committee  No. A number of years ago our acreage would have been 50,000 acres. We are always in a rotation. We're not perpetually double-cropping tobacco. This year's production represents approximately 25,000 acres, so many of those acres have already either gone into cover cropping or oth

Agriculture committee  Lloyd, we have submitted an initial proposal to the government. There are some key principles within that proposal. We are talking about a total exit over a defined period of time; the timeframe, really, is to be determined through consultation among the growers, governments, and

Agriculture committee  I believe so, yes.

Agriculture committee  That's also correct.

Agriculture committee  Yes, Lloyd, I'd be happy to answer that question, and I'll also ask Richard to help with the answer. As an example, the community of Delhi, which prided itself on being the heart of tobacco country, was once a thriving small community. The downtown core of Delhi is mostly boarde

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good morning. First, I'd like to thank the committee for having us here this morning. My name is Fred Neukamm. I'm the chair of the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers' Marketing Board. With me here this morning is Richard Van Maele, our vice-chairman