Agriculture committee  Mr. Easter, clearly we think the Canadian Grain Commission plays a real role here. One of the caveats in the province is something called KVD registration. We have been producing milling wheat for 100 years and there's a worry that somehow we would pollute this particular grain s

Agriculture committee  I have just a quick comment on the 12- to 18-month shutout: absolutely not. That is just a bogus story. There is one piece in this puzzle we're not remembering, and that is the consumer. The consumer loves renewable fuel. This industry is on a growth curve that is exponential. Th

Agriculture committee  I'd like to comment on some of those questions. I mentioned the cattle feedlot model as a really unique opportunity. This particular model--we're speaking of Poundmaker as an example--consumes two million bushels of grain a year, and there are hundreds of thousands of hectares

Agriculture committee  I think clearly that's the experience. Jeff touches on it a lot, and then one of the concerns I have is there's a lot of new technology, whether it's biodigesters, whether it's a liquid fluid bed. With all due respect, community groups look at this--and I don't mean to be disresp

Agriculture committee  If I could respond, one of the things that's unique, I think, is some of the new technologies that are being attempted. I'll give you an example. In our part of the world, we have green-based technology. From my understanding from the engineers, a corn ethanol plant will just be

Agriculture committee  Thanks very much. This is fundamentally a flawed debate, and I have spent the last four years of my life debating this and challenging people on the debate. You really have a couple of scientists out there who are making some bold claims, and you have another hundred on the oth

Agriculture committee  We asked Minister Strahl this. We were recently in Ottawa and we clearly articulated what we thought he should do, and that was immediately announced, that there will be a renewable fuel standard in Canada and that we're going to move forward and the details will follow. We also

Agriculture committee  Thanks for the question. We spent hours debating this issue, and I would argue that it's fundamentally flawed if the federal government comes up with a program and there's no take-up by the farmers. That would be a tragedy. Last week alone I made a circuit within Saskatchewan o

Agriculture committee  It's maybe 300.

Agriculture committee  At the Ethanol Development Council, we're well aware of the Lanigan plant and the uniqueness of that plant. We have been told for some time about this economies of scale debate and how you can't build a plant of that size and be profitable. We weren't sure of that, so we commissi

Agriculture committee  You're right. With Minister Easter previously, Minister Strahl, and others, our particular group is supplying a tremendous amount of information regarding the American model. Some of the very specific programs in the American model have been very successful. With all due respect

Agriculture committee  Thanks for the question. You're absolutely right, there are four technology providers in the U.S. that provide the technology to build plants. We went a couple of steps forward in Saskatchewan, where we've gotten access to a particular technology that we've licensed, and we're wo

Agriculture committee  Sure, I'd love to comment. First of all, Kory, simply to let you know, we have 65 million acres of arable land in Saskatchewan and 35 million acres of crops, so we have a lot of acres. There is quite an interesting debate going on here about corn availability. Clearly, we thin

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. I represent a group called the Saskatchewan Ethanol Development Council, which grew out of an organization called Saskatchewan Agrivision, which I was directly part of. We became very aggressive with the