Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Yes, that's correct. You're right—we aren't like a co-op model in that we don't retail. For example, together with an input supply partner, we registered a generic pesticide and negotiated a price that was 50% of the price for the original product in the market. The savings from

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Again, in my case, I'm very focused, but to the extent that a co-op gives farmers a leg up in being more cost-competitive...I believe they should facilitate or pave the way as much as possible for co-ops and other organizations to empower farmers, yes.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Thank you. I will finish on this. We have a 15% tier called AgriInvest. Currently there is over $1 billion in AgriInvest, which consists of fund 1 and fund 2. Farmers can withdraw that money any time they want. However, they have to withdraw out of fund 2 first, and that mone

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you for the invitation to be here. I'm here on behalf of Farmers of North America. I'll tell you a little bit more about that organization later on. Suffice it to say for the moment that it's an organization that has as its number one m

Bill C-18 committee  Yes. Again, that would be something that would be in an upcoming business plan. The one thing I can tell you is that we are almost done putting in place a security insurance program for our members, which we think is going to greatly facilitate farmers' cashflow. It will enable

Bill C-18 committee  On producer cars, again, the number one issue would be to make sure that railways serve farmers with producer cars and that there is timely delivery and timely pickup to make sure that farmers get the benefit of the producer cars the way they have to date. Again, the more you can

Bill C-18 committee  The grains and oilseeds industry in Canada has a huge future. I think we're probably more efficient than anybody else in the world. Our farmers have learned to do it right, even on the input side. I think farmers are beginning to realize—and you must know that in western Canada,

Bill C-18 committee  Sorry, could you repeat that question?

Bill C-18 committee  I would be speaking above my expertise on that one. Sorry, I'm not trying to be cagey about it.

Bill C-18 committee  I don't know anything about the value-added industry in the grains and oilseeds sector.

Bill C-18 committee  No, I'm not, but again, the investment idea we had would also facilitate investment in value added, and in fact the draft document we have on that initiative talks about exactly that, about using it as an incentive and stimulus for value-added investment.

Bill C-18 committee  Of course the other thing that's kind of encompassing this whole thing is we've heard people say that if current grain handlers are now going to handle the grain, they're going to be making the profits and giving them to their shareholders. Yes, of course, grain companies do exac

Bill C-18 committee  I still can't see that far, so I wouldn't know exactly what that would look like. For the moment, and for the current discussion, I would simply emphasize that we make sure that we deal with the issues I listed. Those would be shortline rail, producer cars, making sure farmers ha

Bill C-18 committee  I don't want to leave people here with the feeling that we're out to replace the Wheat Board because we made some recommendations we think are quite important with regard to a new Wheat Board. It has to be run by a board of directors that has the success of a marketing agency for

Bill C-18 committee  Could I refrain from answering that question, Mr. Hoback? Again, that's something we're looking at in the task force. For competition reasons, I would rather not mention it, but perhaps we can talk about it later.