Agriculture committee  I think the numbers I heard recently were that the Grain Commission was receiving over $40 million, and if you're just cutting $20 million out of a cost by changing things like inward inspection, you are going to have significant increases in licensing fees and other costs, perhaps a four to six times increase in the cost of a licence.

Agriculture committee  The bond is seen by the grain companies as a cost of doing business. As Elwin pointed out, $600 million is tied up. It's not put to use. It's not building a business. The grain companies were adamant that we needed to move away from the system. We have questions about the insurance-based model because we don't know what the cost is.

Agriculture committee  It's only as good as the reporting. You can have circumstances arise that leave farmers without full coverage, which is the intent. But it's an expensive program and it wasn't foolproof.

Agriculture committee  The terminal operator is still going to have people who are doing an inward inspection and evaluation. The real change—and I think Mr. Hermanson talked about it. When you no longer have a Canadian Wheat Board involved.... You would have, in the past, had grain that might have come from Viterra or Cargill that might have been unloaded at a UGG or a Richardson, depending on what era of the grain industry you go back to.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the standing committee to express the views of the Canadian Special Crops Association. The CSCA has 110 members, ranging in size from large multinational companies to single-plant processors of the four pulse crops, as well as sunflower, buckwheat, canary seed, and mustard.