Agriculture committee  I will go back to what I said previously. The difficulties are not just about our trading relationship with the United States. The deemed trust we have been discussing for some time is a matter which affects our business relationship with other Canadians, in this country. I think it is important to note that.

Agriculture committee  Most of the products we sell are delivered. We are responsible for transport and import. We are the importer of record, and we deliver directly to the client. If there is a bankruptcy or non-payment, we are responsible for our produce and related transportation costs.

Agriculture committee  When I spoke earlier about the PACA, I said that we had some rights, but that the American purchaser had responsibilities, and if a complaint is submitted under PACA and is not settled, those people can lose their permit to do business. It takes quite a long time before they can start up in business again.

Agriculture committee  We have an agricultural farm in Florida, in the Belle Glade area.

Agriculture committee  When we make a sale directly from our facility in Florida, we have protection under PACA. We are Canadian businesses who do business in Florida. In 95% of cases, our sales are invoiced by a Canadian company, even if the majority of the product comes from Florida during part of the year.

Agriculture committee  A large enterprise has bigger problems, and a small enterprise has smaller ones. For us, a client's debt may reach $150,000, $200,000 or $300,000. For a business doing sales of $80,000 a year, that amount would be smaller. We also deal with bigger clients and they also run the risk of bankruptcy.

Agriculture committee  Over the past year, we did not have to make any claims under PACA. However, we did make some in previous years. We did not have to make any deposit. All we had to do was follow the rules and the procedure. Our farm is a large one, and our enterprise purchases products from a lot of small farms.

Agriculture committee  We are entirely favourable to this measure, not only for reciprocity with the United States, but also to protect farmers in transactions between clients in Canada. There has not been any protection and there is none here, whereas there is in the United States. I have taken part in many discussions over the past three or four years.

Agriculture committee  Yes we do. We have an agricultural farm—

Agriculture committee  It is voluntary. As Mr. Webber was saying earlier, in the context of the renewal of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, CFIA, membership in the Fruit and Vegetable Dispute Resolution Corporation, or DRC, may be made obligatory in order to do business and to obtain a licence to sell fruit and vegetables.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity for Vegpro International Inc. to appear before this committee studying PACA, the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. My name is Jocelyn St-Denis and I am the director of Finance at Vegpro International.