Agriculture committee  Yes. It's the complexity of it. It could be a dealer model or a packer model. It could be coming from the retailer. Backing up from the retailer, if the retailer buys it from a dealer, that dealer then is paying back their growers. There could be three and sometimes even four ste

Agriculture committee  It's a downward flow. It's not a retail benefit. It's a supply chain benefit. It depends, as I mentioned. Sobey's sells to Target. Target declares bankruptcy. Sobey's had to self-insure to ensure that their growers got paid, or else they were going to have a hole in their own sys

Agriculture committee  We need to leave the text as is for the primary purpose to ensure reciprocity is reinstated. We have exporters, and that is not only growers. We have repackers and wholesalers who trade with the U.S. who don't own a U.S. business that can leverage the dispute resolution mechanism

Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  We do have the benefit of the Fruit and Vegetable Dispute Resolution Corporation, and these are all of the tools within the DRC. What would happen if there was a bankruptcy with Bill C-280 protecting the supply chain? Let's say a packer was then able to generate some funds out of

Agriculture committee  Yes. We need each piece.

Agriculture committee  In 15 seconds I will not have time to answer that clearly. Jurisdictional challenges are a key factor we need to look at. The federal approach is essential.

Agriculture committee  I totally agree. We've been studying this for many years. I started in the produce industry with the association in 1998. I was involved when we launched the Dispute Resolution Corporation. We weren't able to put the bankruptcy protection in place at that point in time under Mini

Agriculture committee  It's a simple answer. Yes, there's greater risk.

Agriculture committee  The banks have been silent. We've spoken to the Bankers Association. The Bankers Association has a standing policy that no one is a superpriority, bottom line. That was years and years ago. We've been working at this since the early 2000s. In those conversations, it's just a stan

Agriculture committee  I'm going to go back a few years. There was a resolution in support from the Chamber of Commerce that was put forward from the Leamington office to the Ontario chamber and brought forward to the Canadian chamber. That resolution has since lapsed over time. We as an organization

Agriculture committee  No, at this point we have not. We've conducted a survey with wholesalers across the country. In that work, everyone concluded that lending relationships are unique to each company's own situation. We understand that this may impact unique organizations, and the risk for some or

Agriculture committee  Certainly. In 2016, Charles Parrott, who was the administrator at the time, sent a letter to the assistant deputy minister at Agriculture Canada outlining the key pillars that are necessary. I noted that in my testimony. The specific one was comparability under a deemed trust.

Agriculture committee  Good evening, Mr. Chair and committee members. On behalf of the Canadian Produce Marketing Association, I want to thank the committee for the opportunity to speak to Bill C-280 , the financial protection for fresh fruit and vegetable farmers act. CPMA represents over 830 compa

Agriculture committee  Food security builds.... As we heard from one of the other witnesses, it comes back into your housing, it comes back to employment and it comes back to the affordability and availability of food. When children eat, they learn better. They are enabled and they're empowered to grow