Agriculture committee  I'll make a quick comment on labour. The SAWP, seasonal agricultural worker program, is very important, and we have asked the federal government to continue to support those programs. Labour is a very important component in our industry. I do have a few comments here on trade and international competition.

Agriculture committee  You're very welcome. Thank you, and good morning. First of all, I'd like to welcome all of you to Kelowna. If you were here yesterday, we had just a banner day. The weather was fantastic. Today you'll be visiting orchards that are on the verge of blooming. Cherries will be blooming and apples are certainly opening up.

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chairman, we won't discount the importance of BRM, but as I presented this morning, strategic growth is an area on which we could concentrate a lot more. We've seen examples of that already with the funding initiatives for the biofuels. Those area strategic investments in a sector that has had its challenges.

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chairman, I'm going to say that despite certain problem areas like CAIS, the APF has been a real stabilizing force. I think for long-term planning, going more than just one or two years down the road, you need to design national programs and delivery systems for at least a five- to ten-year timeframe.

Agriculture committee  You're right about Chinese produce. They produce some exotic pears. On the apple side, you'll find Chinese Fujis for the most part, which they produce in great quantity. I'm not sure of the import figures to Canada, because they had a trial export period of time when the amounts weren't that great.

Agriculture committee  Is that bottled water? I hope so.

Agriculture committee  It's interesting that you should pose the question of what can we do on the domestic marketing side for the industry. As I said before, we are in a situation where 50% of what is consumed in Canada is being imported. How do we transition the industry into a level of competitiveness that sustains itself, particularly in a domestic market?

Agriculture committee  We need institutional buying programs as a good starting point, because that sets the example. Buy Canadian, buy local, buy quality, buy for food safety. We need to use the Canada brand. If we're going to use that, put some credibility around it. Put limits on what the Canadian content should be.

Agriculture committee  I believe so. An MP from this area, Ron Cannan, from Kelowna—Lake Country, in his first year in Ottawa, was appalled to find products from Washington State in the Commons cafeteria. He contacted our vice-president at that time from Kelowna. Our vice-president systematically took two boxes of apples to the airport and put them on a plane.

Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for asking those questions. First of all, we talked about it initially in the context of having a rapid response tariff mechanism. Perhaps it's better if we do have a minimum price, in the sense that it's less on the retaliatory side and more on the side of maintaining market stability.

Agriculture committee  Yes, Mr. Chairman. I think the word “affordability” came into play in a lot of these programs in the past, and it continues to be an issue for the provincial government in consultations with the federal government. The word “affordability” comes up time and time again, and that's a problem.

Agriculture committee  In terms of research, the Canadian apple industry just had a national priority-setting research workshop with players from Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and B.C. The very thing I talked about, in terms of the breeding program, was one of the top five research priorities that came out of that.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good morning to all the committee members here. Welcome to Penticton. This is the heart of God's country, by the way. My name is Joe Sardinha. I'm president of the B.C. Fruit Growers Association. I'm an apple grower in Summerland, just north of Penticton.