Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, folks, and thank you for making the presentations.
First, on your point, Steve, on the new Fisheries Act, although it's not related to this hearing, I do know, having chaired the fisheries committee before, that habitat is a huge issue in B.C. and trying to deal with DFO in that regard. Our position at the moment on the bill--why we put the hoist motion in place--is do we want the bill to go to committee before second reading? The bill clearly was developed by the bureaucracy in Ottawa, which doesn't understand what things are like on the ground. It's a lot easier to change a bill if the consultations are held first, rather than after, so that's why the position is there. So certainly if you want to write the minister and tell him to come to his senses and do some consultations and let it go to committee before second reading, we'd welcome that.
The pressure from imported product, which you also mentioned, is a huge issue that's not directly related to the agricultural policy framework discussion, but it is one we hear about consistently. I was talking to some people the other day in the apple industry, and maybe you can fill me in on what the situation here is. The apple industry in some areas is basically going under because concentrated product is coming in from China. They're adding 80% Canadian water and calling the product a “Product of Canada”. We're going to have to deal with this issue. It's the same with honey from China.
There were a couple of others that I think Tim mentioned as well, such as the difficulty of products coming in here with which our competitors can use a herbicide or pesticide or fungicide that we can't use. We restrict it for safety reasons, yet product grown with the use of that herbicide or pesticide in other countries comes in here just the same. It's an issue we've grappled with for a while. I'd like to know what you propose as a solution on that end, because obviously we haven't found it yet. The Pest Management Regulatory Agency I think has improved in part because this committee demands that they come before us every six months for a progress report. If you have anything in that area, I'd certainly welcome hearing it.
The last question, before I go to answers, is on your point as well, Tim. In fact I dealt with one of the greenhouses out here that is in the process of going under over a pest. The difficulty is with CFIA in that regard to a certain extent. I understand why they have to do what they do, but in the dairy industry or in the cattle industry, if we have a cow with tuberculosis, it's immediately pulled out of the herd, and compensation is right there, right now. Why can't we do the same thing with pests in the horticulture industry?
That's my series of questions to start.