Agriculture committee  Any one-offs at this point? I guess spring price endorsement on grain would be one, but that's a self-funded program that you buy premiums on. And there's cattle price insurance as well, which is self-funded. The administration is paid by the provincial government.

Agriculture committee  Sure. As these guys have mentioned, we had FRP I and II in Alberta. They were one-offs that weren't offered in other provinces. We've seen Quebec offer their ASRA program to their producers. So different provinces do different things that skew markets. I think Saskatchewan even h

Agriculture committee  Well, ours is different. We're a multi-generational operation. My grandfather came up from the States in 1901 and started farming in our area. To me it's a little ironic, in that he and his brothers custom-broke land for all the neighbours. There were seven of them. They broke la

Agriculture committee  I think we'd survive. If we can't compete with them, I think we're in some real trouble. I think you bring up some important points. I think the problem is a lot of these trade agreements haven't gone far enough. You mentioned the Doha Round, so I'll start with that. The fact

Agriculture committee  Well, the crux of the problem for 20 years is that everybody else's sensitive products are what we export. Beef and grain are sensitive in other countries; our sensitive products are chicken and dairy. I think they would still be allowed to have a 75% to 125% tariff if the Doha R

Agriculture committee  I think it could be. I think there would have to be some qualifications around that, about how young the person is and maybe commitments about how long they'd farm. I think there's an ability to do that. I think, as well, we could create corporate tracts—corporate may be the rig

Agriculture committee  We have to be able to certify these drugs and these chemicals for grain farmers at the same speed that our competitors do. We can't have generic drugs and generic sprays available—herbicides available—in other countries and then our certification process takes four years. That's

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Darcy Davis. I farm about 30 miles east of here, straight east. I have a slight grain operation--it's not very large any more--and a cow-calf operation. I'll tell you a little bit about myself. I'm the past chair of the Alberta Beef Producers. I