Agriculture committee  I agree that having a greater selection of varieties is important. If you go back and look, you'll find that I was one of the people who was arguing that things like HY320 as a new variety should be introduced to give farmers more choice.

Agriculture committee  So I haven't been opposed to technological change or those types of developments. Brian Fowler is a colleague of mine, and we have discussed how specific milling requirements and other things may have limited the gains for some things. Sometimes it's important to adjust regulations.

Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  In terms of farmland prices, some of them have been escalating very rapidly. You can hear of prices in some regions exceeding $2,500 per acre, which is up sharply. I heard of one, which I didn't personally go out and validate, where an offer was given of $3,000 an acre for good land near Balcarres, north of Regina, but I heard the seller declined.

Agriculture committee  We like regulations to be efficient, but not necessarily no regulations. Let's face it, if you run a futures market, there are regulations about how prices are reported. There are regulations that you have to have a margin deposit, both buyer and seller. Regulations are needed to make an efficient market operate.

Agriculture committee  Rail transportation is a vital link for the prairie economy. We've seen the system centralized. We've seen major cost savings. Branch lines were abandoned. But there was always talk about sharing the gains from these transitions. There is a service review in place, but the rail costing review badly needs to be done.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to provide input on the Canadian grain and oilseed supply chain. Our grains and oilseeds sector is an important contributor to the Canadian economy in terms of jobs, exports, and a safe and reliable food supply for Canadian and global citizens.