Agriculture committee  Yes, I would agree. In our sector, we have some serious limitations in being able to access the work force, or a reliable work force, both at the producer and processing levels. When we talk to our processors and our abattoirs, they face some serious problems accessing skilled labour and continuous skilled labour.

Agriculture committee  There was the comment that at the federal level we are challenged with what the provinces do and how they act. However, if there's some federal support for mutual recognition or mutual approval of those processes, with that recognition there might be an increased acceptance in turn by those major retail stores.

Agriculture committee  I would reiterate that it has to be one of those focuses. I think that if there were a SWOT analysis done of the level of provincial versus federal inspection, you would find that in a lot of cases there isn't a lot of difference between the two. That might be a good starting point in determining how we get the provincial level to recognize the federal level.

Agriculture committee  I would suggest that we don't see a tremendous amount of competitiveness among producers between provinces. We see the general push coming from those retailers who want to accept federally inspected product regardless of whether it has met a provincial standard. That's the limitation and why they won't take it.

Agriculture committee  Yes, it....

Agriculture committee  Our largest limitation is that our major retail grocery stores, despite having a product that is processed within the same province as those stores, are still reluctant, if not completely resistant, to selling provincially inspected product, based largely on the fact that their distribution centres require interprovincial movements and they don't wish to rely on having to sort products by province.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. On behalf of the Canadian sheep industry, I would like to thank the committee for its invitation to speak to you and address some of the challenges our sector faces. So thank you. The Canadian Sheep Federation is a national not-for-profit organization that represents over 11,000 Canadian sheep producers.