Agriculture committee  The non-supply-managed commodities in Ontario have been lobbying the provincial government consistently for over a year now to get some sort of a business risk management program developed that does take into account the cost of production. I know that's a little bit different fr

Agriculture committee  After I got the call from the committee to come today, I called around to some of our local apple producers. We're also coming into our year-end, so there will be elections to the next executive for the Georgian Bay Fruit Growers Association, 67 apple growers in the Georgian Bay

Agriculture committee  That's a good question, and one that we've thought about quite a bit. Before CAIS and AgriStability and the suite of programs, we had a program called NISA, the net income stabilization account. There were challenges with NISA. Growers, farmers, would have huge account balances

Agriculture committee  Now it looks quite good.

Agriculture committee  Generally speaking, right from the beginning people were told that all the assistance will not make them whole again, but it will help them get back on their feet. That's what it has done. It's helped people replant, where possible. It's helped them move on, and it has prevented

Agriculture committee  Yes. And one of the unique things about the tree insurance plan is that it's one of those plans that in Ontario—I think it's unique to Ontario. A new farmer isn't allowed to have tree insurance until they prove their record. He bought an existing orchard that had been there for 4

Agriculture committee  But it was his own farm that he bought. They kept it that way.

Agriculture committee  There certainly are challenges with AgriStability, the suite of programs, when it comes to financial support for horticultural producers. They are intended to take out the valleys, but you have to have those peaks to make the valleys significant enough for the program to pay out.

Agriculture committee  Okay. Severe weather is pretty common. With the degree of damage caused in our area, the actual crop loss for that year was about $1.5 million. The damage to infrastructure and whatnot was again over $1 million. Most of that was insured, as AgriRecovery is designed to cover wha

Agriculture committee  Thanks, Larry. Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the standing committee to talk about the agricultural disaster relief programs. My name is Brian Gilroy. I'm an apple farmer located just south of Meaford, Ontario, which is located in your chair's rid