Agriculture committee  There was a person earlier who said, “Let's get into just organic and nothing else, and that's it.” I don't think it's one or the other. Our farmers are doing an incredible increase in organic to this point. Yes, there are requirements if you want to be certified, that you have to have additional space and that.

Agriculture committee  Yes, if you like. I don't think it is necessary to define the term “local”. The consumer will decide. If the consumer wants the product to come from his city, that's fine. If the consumer wants the product to come from New-Brunswick or elsewhere, it's his decision. To some consumers, a Canadian product can be a local product.

Agriculture committee  We're all in favour of improvement on transportation changes. We're in line with making sure we're doing it for the right reasons, for the benefit of the animals. But also, as we've said, the biggest risk to us is Atlantic Canada, the transportation distances. What they were proposing would put a lot of farmers and a lot of processing plants out of business in Atlantic Canada.

Agriculture committee  There has been 12% growth in our industry over the past four years. In that context, since competition was much greater during that period, the price that producers received for one kilo of chicken decreased by 7%. As for the management of our system, the cost of the improved efficiency on our farms is passed on to the processors.

Agriculture committee  We are already present in all of the provinces. Production is local and available in the 10 provinces. However, we do not produce in the territories. Eggs are produced in the Northwest Territories. In any case, we try to see to it that local product is available, insofar as possible.

Agriculture committee  I know there's a concern. As I said, we paid $2.3 billion in taxes. I don't think one of our members will say they shouldn't pay their fair share of taxes, and I think they feel they do. They have some concerns about trying to understand the impacts of this proposed legislation.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The chicken industry in Canada is a growth and value-addition success story. Production has increased 12% over the last four years, and will increase another 4% this year. Just to give you a sense of what the sector comprises, there are 244 hatching egg farms, 40 hatcheries, 125 feed mills, 2,800 chicken farmers, and 191 processing plants across the country.

International Trade committee  We've talked about the marketing advantage over here. Some companies are taking a marketing advantage. You can't raise 100% without antibiotics. That's an impossibility. Birds will get sick. Humans will get sick. Our point is not to use the ones of importance to human medicine and keep the efficacy for both humans and animals.

International Trade committee  There are a couple of steps. In 2014, we eliminated any preventive use of category I antibiotics, most important to medicine. We made a decision in May of this year that by the end of 2018 we will eliminate category II, and our goal is to eliminate category III by the end of 2020.

International Trade committee  Nothing is harmonized. We're moving ahead as an industry. There isn't a government regulation in place, in that sense. We're trying to move a whole industry. When we say there's no category I antibiotic use, it's across all production in Canada. In the United States, it will be done on a company-by-company basis, so they'll only affect what they do in their own company.

International Trade committee  We have no indication in terms of that, so our message to Mr. Trump is that if he wants more access, sign TPP. It's there.

International Trade committee  There was a deal done in TPP. Would I say, if I was negotiating only for the Chicken Farmers of Canada, that I liked that deal? No.

International Trade committee  I'm not sure that there is, but I think there are enough demands from the U.S. side that we need to put back the same demands. There is a risk that some of our colleagues in agriculture fear the U.S. coming back on COOL. All I want to signal is that if they're coming back, our push-back has to be strong and it has to include chicken as well.

International Trade committee  Mexico is their largest in both volume and value, and we're the second largest in both volume and value. The U.S. chicken industry understands that NAFTA is of benefit to them. If they got a bit more access, would they say they liked it? Yes, but what's important to them, as Clyde has said, is to do no harm.

International Trade committee  The key piece on that one, which we've been pushing for, is DNA testing. We've worked with Trent University to have DNA testing. We're at the point where the government needs to test, to get it's own validation of our test. We think it's good. We didn't do it. The people at Trent University did.