Agriculture committee  Hello everyone. Thank you for including me. I hope my volume is working for the interpreters. Is that strong enough for interpretation services?

Agriculture committee  Good evening, Mr. Chair, and committee members. On behalf of the Canadian Produce Marketing Association, I want to thank the committee for the opportunity to talk about food prices in Canada. CPMA represents over 830 companies that are growing, packing, shipping and selling fre

Agriculture committee  Should I start from the top or from where I left off?

Agriculture committee  Wonderful. As noted by previous witnesses, there have been excessive cost pressures on both the supply chain and the consumer. While the produce industry is seeing market improvements, we are still seeing parts of our system influenced by global markets and high-cost centres. As

Agriculture committee  There's no formal analysis that has been done just because of the volume and numbers of growers and the diversity of the supply chain, but I concur with Mr. Currie's testimony, as I mentioned earlier, and that of the witnesses on June 12. I do feel, as I mentioned earlier, that

Agriculture committee  I think that's an excellent point. That was my point relative to the timing and landing strip that we have. It's not one year. Looking at legislation and regulation, we do have time. We don't have five years, but there is a window, like I said, of two years or maybe a bit longer.

Agriculture committee  It is significant, because it provides them with the leverage. When they're negotiating on a dispute over quality and price, they are able to leverage in a way that they get access to the dispute resolution mechanism without having to post double the value in the form of a bond.

Agriculture committee  Within the jurisdiction, if we're talking about the bankruptcy and insolvency framework, the organization must be declaring bankruptcy. Because of the jurisdiction being federal and provincial bankruptcy rules, we have to make sure that the organization is insolvent. This is why

Agriculture committee  If we implement the PACA-like trust in the way it is being presented in Bill C-280, no.

Agriculture committee  Adopt it as is relative to the way we position the supplier. Why that's important is it will protect the first level of sale to the final level of sale. That's key in support of the entire supply chain and stability. I will say concerning the comments made around potential food

Agriculture committee  This is the first time the concept has been proposed. Legislation doesn't happen overnight. There's the introduction, and if we move through the process, it comes out from the Senate. The runway to deliver will be approximately two years anyway. As we move through that process an

Agriculture committee  Looking at the introduction of the legislation within this Parliament and government and then the delivery of that, by the time we move, it will be the end of 2024, almost 2025, if all the ducks line up.

Agriculture committee  We have not heard from any other company.

Agriculture committee  The consequences would be ongoing impacts in the U.S. with our trading relationship and payments. We're receiving anecdotal statements from exporters on disputes over the quality or grade of a product and the payment process. They are taking 50¢ or 75¢ on a dollar and sometimes

Agriculture committee  I'd be happy to share that. As I mentioned, we've been doing this work for some time. That document is one of the earlier ones that we use to counter some of the discussions that we are having with ISED and Agriculture Canada, where they were looking at a similar approach on the