Agriculture committee  When we looked at our application for the agriscience cluster funding, we split it into four areas according to the priorities of the industry: working on projects that covered genetic advancement, agronomics, health and sustainability. Within those areas, I think we need to consistently provide a supply of product to the marketplace, which should secure value-added companies to come, because they're going to need that supply to make their products.

Agriculture committee  I want to re-emphasize that, as long as our growers can consistently provide a nice supply of the product, that's what food companies want. They want consistency. They want something they can depend on when they move it through their formulations. The investment, the $11.1 million that came to us, will help us provide that and enable our growers to give that supply to the marketplace, which is attractive.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. Quite often, the Alberta Pulse Growers works in conjunction with our Government of Alberta colleagues at the Food Processing Development Centre in Leduc. It's similar to the centre you visited in Saskatoon. The centre there also has what they call an incubator, so small companies can come in and do some work there to try their products.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. There was a range of products. It was very interesting to see, because for the companies that came to us for this work it was pretty much their first time using pulses and the ingredients that pulses can provide. Some of it was protein, and some of it was fibre.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Dreeshen, for your question. I'll talk a bit about the first part of your question, on bulk and refined products. When we talk of bulk processing, it's really cleaning the product and then shipping it in large quantities to port and off to the globe. These are the majority of the ways, for example, that peas are moved throughout our system in Canada.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Leanne Fischbuch. I am the executive director of the Alberta Pulse Growers. Farmers elected to our board represent over 6,000 producers of pulse crops in Alberta. These crops include field pea, dry bean, lentil, chickpea, soybean and faba bean.

International Trade committee  Yes, I could add something. With the International Year of Pulses, we have an opportunity to promote the pulse industry globally. The way we're talking about it is through sustainability messaging, health messaging, market access to trade, and a variety of things and awareness.

International Trade committee  We had an example of this in the past. It was a later signing on South Korea. In that agreement the U.S. was already into the marketplace, and it cost the pulse industry a lot getting in. For us to be late in signing or have the U.S. go ahead of us would bring us more of the same disadvantages.

International Trade committee  With respect to Alberta, D'Arcy mentioned in his presentation that we know that in the next two years we probably are going to have somebody within the province who will do further value-added processing. For us this is really critical. We have obviously been putting forward mostly commodities for export, and the opportunity for our farmers to have a choice to go beyond the export borders into something more highly valued; you mentioned the pea proteins, the fibres, and the starch opportunities.

International Trade committee  I would say move forward as soon as possible; be a leader in it.

International Trade committee  Thank you, D'Arcy. We trust that Parliament can implement this agreement as soon as possible to enhance the competitiveness of the Canadian industry exporting to TPP countries. As our time is limited, I have a few points to make in summary. While the TPP will eliminate certain pulse tariffs ranging from 5% to 30%, it is an opportunity to improve the predictability of trade between TPP members concerning trade tolerances for the use of technology in food production.