Thank you, Chairman.
My name is Travis Toews. My family and I ranch west of Grande Prairie, Alberta, and I'm currently the president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association.
The topic of young farmers and ranchers and the future of agriculture is a very important topic and one that's important to me personally. I have three teenaged children who enjoy and appreciate agriculture and are considering their future course of studies and career direction.
The question of what we need to do to encourage young people to take up a career in agriculture is a good question, but one that I believe we often needlessly complicate. I believe that a career in agriculture, and specifically a career in the cattle industry, would be the first choice of many talented and motivated young people in Canada, but they must first be assured that there's some expectation of a profit for a well-managed operation.
While I don't believe that government or, maybe more accurately, the taxpayers of this country owe us the right to make a living in agriculture, there is a critical function government must perform to ensure that producers have every chance to succeed. The cattle industry is dependent on exports; we compete in a North American and a global environment. In order to succeed, we must ensure that our industry has a very competitive business environment.
For the Canadian cattle industry, I define competitiveness as: competitive market access into all the major beef-importing countries of the world; the most efficient and cost-effective regulatory environment possible; and implementation of cutting-edge research and technology.
We continue to have limited or no access for Canadian beef products into the important Asian markets of Japan, Korea, China, and Taiwan. Our access is also limited in Mexico, and country-of-origin labelling legislation in the U.S. has decreased U.S. demand for Canadian live cattle.
We are pleased that the Government of Canada has taken action at the WTO with Korea and the U.S., and that Minister Ritz continues to make market access a priority by travelling to these countries, pressing for market access. While we've made some progress in certain markets, the bottom line is that we remain at a competitive disadvantage on the market access front.
We have high expectations for the market access secretariat, and we're very pleased that the minister acted on this key recommendation. However, the secretariat continues to be a work in progress and will require further adjustment and mandate to meet the industry's vision of moving Canada's negotiating capability to the top of the podium.
We also have high expectations with the EU free trade negotiation. We have commissioned a study to determine the potential opportunity that duty-free access into the EU would create for the Canadian beef industry. While the study is not yet complete, early indications suggest that significant opportunity will exist.
However, this negotiation must provide for very substantial duty-free market access and also provide resolution to the technical issues that currently hinder our access. If the negotiation is a success, it will provide incentive for a segment of our industry to adopt required production protocols and produce specifically for this market. I would see small and mid-sized operations having an advantage in meeting these protocols.
Our regulatory environment plays a huge role in determining our global competitiveness and, ultimately, our profitability. I recently spoke to this committee on the effects of the enhanced feed ban and the economic effects it's having on our competitiveness, but that's not the only regulatory issue.
While the veterinary drug directorate has made strides in dealing expeditiously with new product approval requests, we continue to have less access for food animal production products than do our competitors, and we also pay more for the products we have access to. The regulatory requirements need to be improved and streamlined to encourage companies to apply for approval of food animal production products in Canada.
We also need to ensure our regulatory approach for new feed-grain variety registration. We need a registration process that encourages the development of new seed varieties, which is also an essential component to our overall competitiveness as an industry as a whole.
There are many other small regulatory costs levied at municipal, provincial, and federal levels and they all, incrementally, negatively affect our competitiveness.
In order to be competitive in the long term, the cattle industry in Canada must also have access to cutting-edge technology. Productivity will be key as we compete with other high-quality beef exporters.
Investment in research and development must continue, and we need a process in place to properly prioritize and coordinate projects. To this end, we are pleased with the formation of the beef science cluster, but we must ensure that, in this tight fiscal environment, adequate funding remains for critical research.
CCA has also initiated the beef information exchange project, which will allow supply-chain participants to share production information up and down the supply chain. We believe this infrastructure will provide the information necessary for primary and seedstock producers to improve genetics and production practices and also provide them with the opportunity to differentiate their product. Feed yards and packers could also use this information in procuring cattle to fit certain production and genetic protocols.
In this period of extreme financial volatility, producers require access to risk-management tools. A cattle price insurance program has been implemented in Alberta that manages the three basic components of price in one tool. These components are the futures risk, the currency risk, and the basis risk. We are working to develop a model that can be implemented nationally and believe it could be a very useful tool for producers to manage their price risk in this volatile environment.
The cattle industry in Canada grew and flourished due to abundant access to grassland forage, feed grain, clean water, and access to valuable markets. Producers have persisted through tough times and through good times and have taken responsibility for their decisions with an attitude of independence and resilience.
These factors are still present today. I believe that if we can deal with the competitiveness issues before us, the cattle industry in Canada has the potential for a bright future, a future that will attract the involvement of young people across the country.