Agriculture committee  I'm not involved in any way in that. Our company does trade some fertilizer with farmers. As David said, prices are high, but so are crop prices. It's maybe sustainable today. You have to trust that supply and demand to some degree will sort this out. As crop prices take a hit in

Agriculture committee  Again, it's more of a regional problem for us, and maybe one that pertains more to our business in particular. I feel that developing the Westhope, North Dakota, and Coulter, Manitoba, border crossing, if not into a 24-hour border crossing then at least into a commercial truck tr

Agriculture committee  Thank you. We continue to go to the school of hard knocks, I guess. I don't think any small company or family business should ever fear competition. Family businesses have often some of the most innovative people you'll find. David is certainly a good example of that as well.

Agriculture committee  Nothing really jumps out. Every country and every business has a certain amount of red tape to deal with. I don't know whether our business is subject to any more of that than in other countries—in fact, maybe less so than companies in Europe. From a cost structure standpoint

Agriculture committee  Thank you. It's probably more of an issue for our company than an industry issue, but we sit at the door of Manitoba. To go to the nearest commercial crossing, we have to go out of our way 30 miles to the east and then back. If we're heading to the western U.S.A. with a load back

Agriculture committee  The infrastructure's good. It's a great highway. It's unrestricted. In load restriction season, once you cross the U.S. border, you're still on unrestricted highway. That's the issue. Especially in load restriction season, when we go to the ports of Dunseith or Boissevain, for ex

Agriculture committee  Yes, that's correct.

Agriculture committee  Zero, but our company is in the organic business. We buy, process, and export organic grains as well.

Agriculture committee  Yes. I think we have seen a trend whereby some of the smaller farms have migrated to the organic business to seek out higher premiums on their production and keep smaller farms more viable.

Agriculture committee  Yes. That's reality for us today. As we speak, we're trying to process flax at our seed plant, and almost every shipment of flaxseed we bring in from western Canadian farmers has trace amounts of canola in it, whether it's cross-contamination from bins and trucks or whether it's

Agriculture committee  I'm not really well versed on the whole thing, to be honest with you. We don't have to do inward or outward inspections, so I'm not really up to speed on some of the issues. My involvement with the Canadian Grain Commission is that we're a licensed and bonded grain buyer with the

Agriculture committee  Yes, we've cooperated with the Manitoba immigration department on getting some of these people into Canada, and they have been quite supportive, but ultimately Service Canada has the final say; the Manitoba immigration department is basically a go-between. As well, there are so m

Agriculture committee  No, actually I'm not aware of it. That's interesting, and I'll certainly look into it. From the experience I've had with it, Service Canada had to give us the green light, and it's been a frustrating experience. One technicality in the advertising means there is reason to reject

Agriculture committee  I think David makes some good comments. When I was a young man starting in the seed business, it was a different world. We had a lot of public, maybe private, varieties in the marketplace, but the royalty structure on a bushel of seed sold to the farmer was about one-tenth of wh

Agriculture committee  Yes, thank you. I see us being on a path to citizenship for these people. We currently have four employees who have come from Ireland and England, all of whom are serious about staying in Canada and building a future here. Some of them already have their permanent residency. Th