Agriculture committee  It's bad. Last year was bad too, and we thought, well, we're past that, but this year it just started in October and hasn't really stopped. Normally the guys need to be done by October 31, when we get into real heavy frost, and they're just.... Every time it dries out, it rains two days later and you're back at it again for another two days.

Agriculture committee  We had one bad frost, and last night I guess they had another frost. They can handle a bit of this, but it's a major concern.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. The change in “Product of Canada” labelling really didn't affect us in any way that I'm aware of. As I say, on the fresh side, it's all labelled “Product of Canada” anyway, and on the process side, you're really just dealing with potatoes and vegetable oils, and they are all Canadian in nature.

Agriculture committee  I'm glad you asked me this because I do want to clarify. What I mean is not mislabelling on the packaging. I mean in the stores, when you go in and the price is there above the display. It might say “Product of Canada, $2.99 a bag”. I think in a lot of cases that's not deliberate.

Agriculture committee  In my case, it's not mislabelling in the legal sense.

Agriculture committee  I haven't been made aware of any problems there. Potatoes usually are such high-percentage content, and the canola oils—the oils that are used—are also Canadian, so I'm not aware of any issues there. As Greg said, there's definitely mislabelling in the stores. When you get to bulk potatoes, sometimes it says “Product of Canada”, when you know they're U.S. potatoes in the bag.

Agriculture committee  They're doing their job on the retail side. If one person is buying for all of eastern Canada or Canada and they call up our board to ask about our supply situation, we tell them. We're frank with them and say we may have too many russets this year, for example--not that we do this year--and if they need to feature more russets so the market moves well, we can do that.

Agriculture committee  Can we go off the record? Because, you know—

Agriculture committee  On the way that deal is working, one retailer said they were going to use the Ontario board's minimum price. So when the Ontario board set their price at $2, delivered to the distribution centres in Ontario, they said that price would work in Quebec, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.

Agriculture committee  I could, Wayne. I guess I don't know if I want to.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. Good afternoon, members of Parliament, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Brenda Simmons, and I'm the assistant general manager at the Prince Edward Island Potato Board. Our organization represents the interests of potato farmers in our province, and we're also active in some national and international organizations that share that interest.