Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, good afternoon. Thank you for inviting us to appear before you.
The Fédération des producteurs de cultures commerciales du Québec has a keen interest in Bill C-33, an act to amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. It is clear that this legislative amendment required for the biofuel policy will have a substantial impact on the competitiveness of the grain sector in Canada and Quebec.
The federation has avoided taking part in the debate up to now on the energy and environmental issues associated with the biofuel industry. However, it remains convinced that the debate must be an objective one based only on scientific evidence. We feel that the citizens of Canada, and perhaps more particularly those in Quebec, have been very poorly informed by the media on these issues up to now.
Our organization is here today to highlight an aspect which it considers important and which seems to have been set aside when the biofuel policy and the legislative measures necessary for it were assessed. That aspect is the negative impact on the grain sector resulting from the lack of a policy or measures aimed at ensuring the sector's success. More generally speaking, our organization believes that it will be vital to develop the processing of commodities into industrial products in order for grain producers in Canada and Quebec to survive.
To begin with, agriculture in Canada and Quebec operates within the North American market context. The grain sectors in Canada and Quebec, which produce 70 and 5 million tonnes respectively, are subject to the realities and the dynamics of a larger market in the United States, our close neighbour.