Human Resources committee  I'll start. Thank you, and good morning. My name is Victor Santacruz. I represent the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association. I'll tell you a bit about our association. We're a not-for-profit ornamental horticultural association. We are the association in Canada. We represent

Human Resources committee  I'd like to further add to that. We have some members in Alberta, and I bring their example because they're the ones who have been bringing the majority of concerns to us. They don't have any employees right now. Some of their garden centres, some of their landscape companies, an

Human Resources committee  I can add to that. I think you managed to answer the question very directly. Yes, it would help, but it's a short-term solution for us.

Human Resources committee  I mean the two-week wait time, and also the 14 weeks. It's a short-term solution for us. Of course it would help, but it would help us more if, during the times they are on EI, they weren't encouraged to leave the industry. I think that's a more important point. We are seasonal.

Human Resources committee  Starting off with the agricultural and nursery colleges, we have a few. Olds College, in Alberta, is just outside Calgary. We have Guelph University for agriculture and nursery programs, and the rest are colleges within Toronto. But most of them tend to be rural or semi-rural, no

Human Resources committee  First of all, thank you for encouraging your son to take landscape architecture. That's always great. I don't think we have enough time to discuss how we can do all of that, but I think a lot of it is education. If we think about a lot of skilled labour, in many cases we depe

Human Resources committee  I looked at trends, and right now there are a couple. They have a program in the Paris area, where the ministry of education got together with industry, and they actually have a green day. It means the ministry pays for buses and industry provides access to retail garden centre

Agriculture committee  Good day, my name is Victor Santacruz. I am the executive director of the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association, a national trade organization representing over 3,800 member companies engaged in the ornamental horticulture industry. Specifically, our sector represents the nurser

Agriculture committee  From our sector, the old rules weren't really helpful to get industry to invest in new varieties simply because the vast majority of the world, 71% of the countries that are following UPOV, are following UPOV 91. It would be very difficult for them to get products in here from th

Agriculture committee  Sure. I was just saying that it does help incentivize industry to invest because there is protection and there is a return on the investment to do so. Right now Canadian hardy products in ornamentals are quite successful in Europe, and we have good research programs with Vinela

Agriculture committee  I'll use the example of roses, which is the one I'm most familiar with since I am responsible for our program in Canada. We've been working—and before us it was the federal government actually—on a program for breeding strong hardy roses. With the help of Vineland, which is doing

Agriculture committee  I think if the bill is not passed or the plant breeders' rights aren't amended, it will affect our industry's ability to invest and incentivize industry to put more into plant breeders research, simply because the level of protection allows us to trade and bring in varieties as w

Agriculture committee  From our end, we've been requesting that we change the PBR amendments specifically since 2005. From our perspective, it's a long time coming and we're very appreciative that it's moving forward. I would have to agree with our friends from the Pork Council that it should be done i

Agriculture committee  We have 3,800 companies across the country, of which 800 are primary producers in the nursery, Christmas tree, and turf-producing sectors, so that's primary production of ornamental products, mostly rooted or woody ornamentals.

Agriculture committee  It's not so much that they're not helpful, but the old PBR is limiting, especially when our biggest trading partners are under the new conventions. It restricts material to us, and of course, it protects us less anywhere else outside of Canada. I think it's just beneficial fro