Agriculture committee  Mr. Chairman and committee members, thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee to speak to the Canada and European Union comprehensive economic and trade agreement and aspects of trade negotiation in general, which are of importance to Canada's horticultural sec

Agriculture committee  I think it's clearly documented that European farmers are among the most highly subsidized farmers in the world. Our assumption is that when the Government of Canada enters into a trade agreement with countries in the European Union, they're taking these subsidies into considerat

Agriculture committee  When I talk to the average producer out there, they probably don't get as involved as we do in where government is on trade issues. In real life, I'm a potato farmer from Manitoba. Many of us have already lived through the NAFTA, and when NAFTA came in, there was a lot of conce

Agriculture committee  Today's producer will first of all analyze the potential profitability of the trade, but if our producers see potential to make additional profits by expanding their operations, they will do that very quickly. Most of our producers have the capital resilience to ramp up that prod

Agriculture committee  No. If I look at the potato sector as an example, it has seen significant decreases over the last decade. As our dollar has gone from 65¢ to 94¢ today, the processing plants have moved a lot of production from Canada to the U.S. There are opportunities for processed products to

Agriculture committee  First of all, other than one apple that's currently being produced on a very limited scale in Canada and is considered GMO, none of the fruits and vegetables that are produced in Canada are GMO, so that aligns us perfectly with trade for Europe. We're much better aligned than cor

Agriculture committee  On an ongoing basis as we continue looking at trade agreements with countries, we have to ensure that we continue to align. Ultimately, with the modern countries—Europe, Canada, the U.S., and others—what we need to do is harmonize our regulations. We need to harmonize our pestici

Agriculture committee  Again, I think that Canadian farmers, when they see advantages, seize the advantage, or grab onto the advantage. If there are going to be additional opportunities for organic growth going into the European market, our farmers absolutely will take that opportunity.

Agriculture committee  The technology doesn't end up being that much of a restriction, because there's mostly not a need for government registration or acceptance of most of the technology. Certainly on the pesticide side, and especially for some of our smaller acreage crops, the pesticide companies do

Agriculture committee  Absolutely. Today's Canadian farmer is very technically savvy. If I climb into one of the tractors back home, I very often have to call one of my boys on the phone to figure out exactly how to program the computer on it so that the tractor can operate—

Agriculture committee  All of our warehouses, as an example, are computer controlled. I don't bother doing it anymore, because I have sons who do the work for me. My sons can be anywhere in the world and they can log in and check the irrigation system. They can check the warehouse to make sure things a

Agriculture committee  Certainly, bees play a very important role for many of our crops. Very often when issues like bee health come up, we tend to look for a scapegoat. We look for one issue that is going to solve the problems. I can assure you that if we banned the neonicotinoids, that's not going

Agriculture committee  Good morning, Chairman and committee members. I wish to thank you for the opportunity to appear today to discuss the next agricultural policy framework. The Canadian Horticultural Council is a national association that represents producers across Canada who are primarily involv

Agriculture committee  Are you talking about the research that was done jointly—

Agriculture committee  If you look at the industry, you'll see research and innovation all the way across the industry. There is research being done on many of the farms. There is also association research being done at the provincial level. There is work being done with universities, with provincial g