Agriculture committee  In terms of access to foreign markets, thanks to Canada Pork, we can promote our products outside Canada. We use this service a lot. As producers, we present files to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. So we are very active in this area. Obviously, we can't put all our eggs in one basket — or all our bacon, I should say in our case.

Agriculture committee  I would like to mention the fact that non-tariff trade barriers could be a shadow that strongly impacts our trade ability. Even if we have a trade agreement, if we have non-tariff barriers in place—such as we have right now with Europe—it means that we are not able to trade. There are also some political statements that could have an impact.

Agriculture committee  It depends on where the production is done. If we leave the Beauce to go to another slaughterhouse, that represents about 200 or 300 kilometres more for producers in our region, depending on where they start. So they're going to have to travel a lot of kilometres, and they're not going to have the option of crossing a bridge.

Agriculture committee  There are different options. In Quebec, Olymel currently does 80% of the slaughtering. We are going through a difficult cyclical period, it's true, but we know that after a downturn, prices rise and the situation improves. We are actively looking for potential investors, as this would allow us to diversify our offer to buyers.

Agriculture committee  Let's talk about research first. There are two levels of research that are important. There is one that we do through our industry with the help of the government through Swine Innovation Porc, and other research that is done at the producer level in the various provinces. This helps the adoption of new technology.

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chair, members of the committee and guests, good evening. My name is René Roy. I am a hog producer in the Beauce region and chair of the Canadian Pork Council. With me today is our executive director, Mr. Stephen Heckbert. Thank you for inviting us to join you today at this very difficult time for Canada's hog producers.