Madam Speaker, I have the honour to present the fifth report of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food.
This interim report on agri-food priorities is intended to provide assistance to the Minister of Finance as well as the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food prior to the 1995 budget. It is based on input and views from many representatives of the agri-food sector who took the time to come to Ottawa to appear before the committee between August and December of this year.
The witnesses represented all sectors. We heard from academics, agri-food organization executives and specialists at both producer and processor levels. Each came with an individual point of view but from among them emerged some common threads.