Evidence of meeting #17 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was producers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:05 p.m.
Regional Administrator, B.C. Breeder and Feeder Association
I guess I didn't quite catch what he was saying.
The audio is cutting out on us here.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
5:05 p.m.
Regional Administrator, B.C. Breeder and Feeder Association
We lost part of that question.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Earl Dreeshen Conservative Red Deer, AB
Okay.
Basically where I was coming from is that if the five-year average is to go a seven-year average one, there are going to be more costs associated with it. Are we going to be talking about people having an option as to which one they're going to take, depending on the commodities they have? I was just wondering whether or not you did any kind of cost analysis when you made that particular suggestion.
5:05 p.m.
Regional Administrator, B.C. Breeder and Feeder Association
Actually, we have been working on that in these last six months. We had discussed what you're talking about when we were changing the reference margin, if that's what you were meaning. I just didn't really feel free other than to say that everybody should have a choice. You should have a choice as to which program you want to go into and whether you want to do use five or seven years. That should be important.
But again, we were just starting to play with our figures. I think that maybe I just didn't want to get too far from there, other than to add this to the notes of mine that are going to be coming.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
5:05 p.m.
Chairman, Potatoes New Brunswick
I'll say no. We have not done any costing of it. The intent there was to flatten out the curve so that you wouldn't see as much change and so many gyrations in the margin.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Earl Dreeshen Conservative Red Deer, AB
Thank you.
Mr. Brennan, I think both of you--you and Ms. Patterson--were speaking about AgriInvest and moving it from 1.5% up to I believe 2.5%. Are you still asking, then, that the provincial governments and the federal government should be matching that? Or are you simply saying that the government contributions should be kept at the 1.5%, and simply allow us to top it up higher?
5:05 p.m.
Regional Administrator, B.C. Breeder and Feeder Association
We're still talking in B.C. about matching.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Earl Dreeshen Conservative Red Deer, AB
I guess my last question, then, perhaps talks about the trade irritants that were mentioned before. I know that the provinces and the federal government do hear from a lot of industry groups that are talking about the potential for countervailing, depending upon the types of things that are being presented.
I'm curious about what your concerns are in your associated commodity groups on that particular issue.
5:10 p.m.
Chairman, Potatoes New Brunswick
We have been very fortunate in recent years that it hasn't been the problem that it was, say, back 8 or 10 years ago, when there was a constant battle with the U.S. in the potato sector. But honestly, in these last five years, we've taken the irritations off of them for several reasons, the exchange rate being one, I expect. We also work more closely with them in international organizations, so there's a bit more understanding of each other's case. But we really haven't faced any countervailing issues for a few years, and it's been much better.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
5:10 p.m.
Regional Administrator, B.C. Breeder and Feeder Association
No. I was going to say pretty much the same, that...[Technical difficulty--Editor].
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
I don't know whether you can hear us, Connie, but we've lost you totally. And if you can't, I guess you don't know.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Earl Dreeshen Conservative Red Deer, AB
I think perhaps she's answered my question.
But Ray, from Saskatchewan's perspective, have you heard any concerns in that regard?
5:10 p.m.
Vice-President, Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities
I will go back to answer your first question, on the average of the five to seven years. I think that would actually have helped with BSE in 2003. Another thing that would have helped is was if they had increased the negative margin. Can you actually believe that people had negative margins? And that happened for a number of years. They were dealing with this up until two years ago, I believe. I think those two changes would have helped.
They did change the negative margin, but it probably needs to be adjusted up some more.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Earl Dreeshen Conservative Red Deer, AB
When you have your AgriInvest, of course you would have funds available then to be able to pay premium differentials for that margin, if that were part of what a new insurance program would be like.
5:10 p.m.
Vice-President, Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities
They could have looked at that at the same time. I think that would have been helpful.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Earl Dreeshen Conservative Red Deer, AB
I know my time is up. Perhaps you could consider some of those thoughts when you give us suggestions.
Thank you very much.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Because we lost you for a minute, Connie, do you want to follow up with a response to Mr. Dreeshen?
5:10 p.m.
Regional Administrator, B.C. Breeder and Feeder Association
I just missed that last part where he was talking about the insurance programs.