Agriculture committee  That was very well put, and I'll try to be brief in response. Quite simply, I mentioned at the outset that a very simple economic analysis cannot answer whether it's a good policy. It can't. You're ultimately weighing benefits versus costs. And you mentioned a few other benefit

Agriculture committee  That's a fair question. I would respond very quickly to the notion of this adjusted set of prices, whether they're adjusted by exchange rates or purchasing power parity, to project the notion that essentially the price of this policy has no consequence for the consumer. I would o

Agriculture committee  But the problems with those types of numbers, when you're comparing prices across countries--I don't know what statistics you have--is that a lot of them depend on what the price levels are in the country in general and on the exchange rate. You can have two different factors tha

Agriculture committee  Clearly, I think a slow phasing out of this system is what's best. Yes, as you mentioned, what's likely to come out of the Doha development agenda will have some impact on supply management. My fear is that 15 years down the road, what likely comes out of that will be even more s

Agriculture committee  That's fine. I mean, you raise some of the obvious positive aspects about the program. It does provide a more stable source of income to a lot of farmers. It does protect them against good production years, bad production years, and those potential cyclical flows. I see that. Li

Agriculture committee  I know that American prices are relatively 30% to 40% lower.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd also like to thank the committee for inviting me to speak here today. I'd like to talk to everyone about the supply managed farm sector. It's Canada's dairy, poultry, and egg farmers that together comprise roughly 20% of Canada's agriculture. Under a su

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sure. You're saying the only other appropriate action here is for the federal government to intervene in the monetary policy, and that's not something I would recommend. If that were the only other potential action to modify the problem being caused for manufacturers because of

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I agree with you entirely, but what I'd say is that often policy can get in the way and pose obstacles and not give people the ability to move from one place to another if they so choose. There are numerous reasons why that could happen. There could be incentives to stay back hom

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You're entirely right: people have reasons for not wanting to move, whether it's a matter of culture or family, in particular. There are a host of reasons. However, many people live in the Atlantic region because there was fishing 50 or 100 years ago and that was very popular. Pe

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't exactly understand the question.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  What is your question exactly?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I guess I'll go first. Immigration has been a significant contributor to Canada's labour force. Recent census data show that from 2001 to 2006, Canada's labour force grew by 1.3 million, of which roughly 40% is directly attributable to immigration. Seasonal and temporary immigr

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As of March 2008, unemployment ranged from a low of 2.9% in central Alberta to 19.1% in southern Newfoundland and Labrador, suggesting rigidity in our labour market. Jobs are available in some areas, but only a trickle of unemployed workers move in response. Notably, labour marke