International Trade committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the opportunity to express myself in French. My presentation today will be a quick rundown of the situation of artisanal cheesemakers. I am the president of the Regroupement des producteurs et transformateurs du Québec, an associatio

International Trade committee  Okay. I can just list some figures that need to be considered. Canada produces roughly 400 million kg of cheese. Of that, 215 million kg come from Quebec. Quebec produces 32 million kg of fine cheese. The Association des fromagers artisans du Québec produces 800,000 kg of cheese

International Trade committee  I will focus on the sector I am most familiar with, the artisanal sector. Of course, the impact will vary from one company to another, but the fact remains that most of the 40 companies rely heavily on marketing outside our respective regions. So we must inevitably compete in maj

International Trade committee  You are absolutely right. That is a very good point. At the end of the day, we are already feeling the impact. However, as I was saying earlier, there was a limit until now. Shopkeepers currently use up 40% to 50% of their stalls for European cheeses. With the products that are g

International Trade committee  Absolutely.

International Trade committee  Yes, exactly. With the stakes changing dramatically, we would like to receive financial compensation, as the Prime Minister pointed out when the agreement in principle was signed. Even before everything goes into effect, whether in January 2015 or in January 2016 as some authori

International Trade committee  That is one of the problems our sector has. Whatever people have said, cheese consumption in Canada has not gone up. That is also mentioned in the document I submitted. The amount of per capita cheese consumption in Canada has plateaued at around 12 kg. Of course, you will tell m

International Trade committee  Yes, indeed, and we took note of what he said. However, we have to be careful. As I said earlier, the 16,000 tonnes that the government is assigning to fine cheeses represents a significantly higher percentage than is understood at the moment. Actually, since the main target is f

International Trade committee  Yes, certainly. There will be quotas again in Canada. It has not been done yet, but quotas for the right to import cheese have already been assigned. It is the holder of the quota who decides on the product he wants to import. Basically, we do not want the quota holders to be the

International Trade committee  Essentially, the quota holders have all the rights. I certainly understand your question, but I cannot answer it precisely because the quota holder has all the rights once he gets the right to import. As to the financial compensation that the Prime Minister mentioned, you are r

International Trade committee  No. The industry and the Syndicat des producteurs de chèvres du Québec have put a price maintenance agreement into place. I cannot tell you what the situation is for the rest of Canada. The producers and processors have agreed on a price, but there is no supply management program

International Trade committee  No, not at all. the situation is kind of the same as for cow's milk. For goats milk and sheep's milk, we see the same pattern.

International Trade committee  Yes. As I said previously, goat's milk production is subsidized at 100% of gross revenue. Without subsidies, farmers would not make it, you understand. For sheep, the rate is 115% to 125%.

International Trade committee  That is a very good question. As I told you, the overall impact that all this will have on the market remains to be evaluated. For it to be fair for everyone, we would like to receive the same ongoing financial support that European producers presently receive on an ongoing basi

International Trade committee  I think it should be a blanket assistance. It should be available for upgrades to the farm as well as to the businesses themselves.