Finance committee  In fact, it is around $30 right now. It helps them a lot. Quebec has a lot of dairy businesses, a lot of cull cows. These people are now able to pay out more for the animals, so as to keep them in Quebec. We also have a project. Margo helped the Riopel company in Quebec, which u

Finance committee  That slaughterhouse is actually taking advantage of a federal program that helps pay the costs associated with those specified risk materials.

Finance committee  Exactly, yes. That's on top of the costs--

Finance committee  Exactly.

Finance committee  No, it's not that. It's that there are lots of improvements that need to be made everywhere, as new technologies are implemented, as new lab testing equipment becomes available for faster tests, for instance. There was a study done by Agriculture Canada last year that looked at t

Finance committee  Exactly, but it does cost money to invest and to become more profitable; however, it's not always that you can pass the cost of some of these things down that result in safer food to Canadians. That's the challenge.

Finance committee  No, they are two separate things. There actually is a federal program right now called the abattoir competiveness program that offsets the cost of the specified risk materials. We're grateful for that, and we've asked for an extension of that program until we can put in place mor

Finance committee  The federal inspection fees are charged to all federally registered meat establishments regardless of what they're processing. In addition to that, we don't believe we should be paying inspection fees.

Finance committee  At least another year.

Finance committee  Over the years, meat processors have been continually improving their food safety systems. Millions of dollars have been invested by companies in upgrading their equipment and reformulating their products to include newly approved antimicrobials and new technology, such as the ne

Finance committee  Good morning. Thank you for inviting us to speak today, as you seek input into the next federal budget. My name is Jim Laws. I'm the executive director of the Canadian Meat Council. With me today is Margo Ladouceur, our regulatory affairs manager. Canada's federally registered

Agriculture committee  I'm not sure I'm exactly the best person to answer that question. I am not the best person to answer that question, but I can still say that some are able to meet the 98% standard. However, others would like more flexibility because some ingredients are not available here. Anywa

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Thank you for inviting me to speak today on the situation in the hog sector. My name is Jim Laws and I'm the executive director of the Canadian Meat Council here in Ottawa. Despite the numerous challenges faced by the hog sector in 2009, in

Finance committee  In fact, it's a totally free market. If the slaughter houses aren't subject to these inspection costs that other sectors aren't required to pay, that's no doubt in order to offer more money for live animals, absolutely, yes.

Finance committee  Sure, it's a good question. If you look at the whole situation, there are new technologies that are extremely expensive. There's a new piece of equipment out right now that's called a high-pressure pasteurizer. There are five of them right now in Canada. The largest units cost ab