Finance committee  Mr. Chairman and committee members, thank you for the opportunity to appear before the House Standing Committee on Finance to speak to the amendment to the Safe Food for Canadians Act that will authorize the Governor in Council to make regulations related to fresh fruits and vege

Finance committee  No, sir. It's strictly related to fresh fruits and vegetables.

Finance committee  When the DRC model was put forth originally under NAFTA, a portion of our charter...I hate to say “required”, but it did require that we be open to look at other commodity groups. We were approached by a couple of firms in Mexico regarding sugar and coffee. Those were never follo

Finance committee  In the vast majority of our cases it's a quick phone call. We handle hundreds, if not thousands, every year just by talking to people about what is the right thing to do. Probably the strength of what we do, though, is in the default rules that kick in for members. There are ti

Finance committee  Just for a bit of a clarification, as you say, there really are two pillars here. The first pillar is dealing with slow-pay or no-pay contract issues between solvent businesses.

Finance committee  What we're talking about here will get us a long way towards resolving that problem with our neighbours around the world, quite frankly, but particularly with the United States. In terms of the second part of this, when there is an insolvency, it is a trade irritant. I will say

Agriculture committee  Thank you. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity to speak to you regarding the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, or the PACA, as it is more commonly known. My name is Fred Webber. I am the president and CEO of the Fruit and Vegetable D

Agriculture committee  The bankruptcy work, such as what Professor Cuming has done, needs to be addressed.

Agriculture committee  We asked Professor Cuming to take a look at the PACA as it exists in the United States without any bias. We then asked him to take his experience as a lawyer, a law professor, a constitutional expert, a bankruptcy expert—

Agriculture committee  He is suggesting that if you are the company that went bankrupt, you took my product, you have my product, you have the cash from selling my product, or you have an account receivable pending from the sale of my product. I want one of them.

Agriculture committee  On those specific assets.

Agriculture committee  I would throw in one other thing about that. In my interviews with the banks—in talking with the specific managers, not the Bankers Association—I noted that when they're making a loan on accounts receivable, they already discount the account receivable by 25%. They then back out

Agriculture committee  If they have no assets, then one of two things has happened: either the creditor has done business with somebody who is truly in a lot of trouble and they've waited too long, or the person has simply taken the money, bought a house by a golf course in Florida, and escaped.

Agriculture committee  That's true. If it sat for very long, it would spoil.

Agriculture committee  When there's a bankruptcy of a produce firm.... I hate to put this out there like this, but the produce is usually their travelling money. No one leaves produce to sit when they close the doors. They sell it out at fire sale prices. They do something with it. There's never produc