Agriculture committee  Sure. The CHC itself has a publication called “Fresh Thinking”, and this is actually one of the topics in our issue this fall. I also find that almost every commodity has this on their communications list this year. Most of us are very tuned in to Twitter, Facebook and all those kinds of things, and it's all over the place.

Agriculture committee  I would think that programming like that would be helpful. We haven't started pushing for anything like that yet, although certainly we have a good relationship with our ag department and some of the other departments where you could ask for that. As always, it comes down to a case of resources.

Agriculture committee  I think that perhaps it's about making sure that those who are in contact with farmers actually have a farming background so they understand the time pressures, the constraints and the isolation. Also, it's about making sure that people are talking. Certainly, six years ago at my husband's funeral, we stated what happened, and that started a conversation in our community—rather than hiding what happened and saying, “He died of mysterious causes.”

Agriculture committee  In vegetable and fruit growing, and many of the other horticulture industries, labour is an incredibly key issue. We cannot operate without enough labour. We cannot get enough labour from the Canadian market, and that is why many of us use SAWP or the Ag stream from the temporary foreign worker program.

Agriculture committee  To achieve such growth and success requires affirmative support and the existence of business conditions that will motivate farmers to continue with their lifestyle. My name is Beth Connery. I'm chair of the Canadian Horticultural Council's labour committee, and I would like to share with you some of my experience.