Finance committee  Good afternoon. My name is Rick Bergmann. I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to appear before the standing committee and provide the perspectives of the Canadian Pork Council and producers on the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As I mentioned, my name is R

Finance committee  Absolutely. Bob said it well. Guess what? Agriculture has changed from 50 years ago, folks. At the little farm I'm involved with, we produce 800 little piglets a week, and this last week—the week we're in right now—we've had to give them away. We gave away 800 piglets because no

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, if I may...?

Finance committee  I appreciate it. Mr. Chair and others, just to finish the thoughts that René presented to you, we know that's actually a very low number. Today, for example, Tyson Foods in the U.S. closed its third American plant because of COVID. Right now in Canada, we know that we've had a

Agriculture committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the invitation to appear before the committee and for seeing Canadian pork producers as an important part of Canada's economy. I'm Rick Bergmann, Canadian Pork Council chair and a producer from Manitoba. I will be sharing my time today w

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Barlow. Thank you for this invitation to appear before the committee on this important topic. As mentioned, my name is Rick Bergmann. I chair the Canadian Pork Council and I'm a pork producer from Manitoba. Today I am joined by Doug Ahrens. He's a produ

Agriculture committee  In operations like mine, we are an export market focused on isoweans. When there's a big demand, a lot of animals can go. When there's no demand, because of COVID, there is more euthanizing occurring, and that affects the mortality rate, of course. Yes, unfortunately, I have to

Agriculture committee  I asked that very question to a producer the day before yesterday. Producers have an opportunity to take the cash market or the futures market. They take the futures market when there is an opportunity, and there is no opportunity in the future right now in the markets, so it is

Agriculture committee  I'm going to defer this question to Doug Ahrens. He is the chair of our business risk management committee, and he's very knowledgeable. We're pleased to have him join us.

Agriculture committee  That's a very, very good question, Mr. Ellis. It really varies from year to year. What we do is we plan our farm for positive results. We do everything we can. Then things come our way that destroy that positive cash flow and create a loss. Again, COVID has done that. To answer

Agriculture committee  I'll start off and invite Mr. Ahrens to wrap it up if he has any concluding comments on that one. On AgriRecovery, as you are all aware, there was an announcement some time ago by our government to help us. AgriRecovery, for my farm and many others, when it comes down to it....

Agriculture committee  Thank you for that. Thank you for this opportunity to appear before the House of Commons. Bill C-205 is very important for Canadian pork producers. My name is Rick Bergmann. I'm a producer from Manitoba, and today I'm joined by René Roy, a producer from Quebec. The Canadian P

Agriculture committee  First of all, we all have expectations of protecting our families and properties. As a matter of fact, maybe in some of the offices that you're sitting in right now, or in your home, there is security to prevent people from coming in. When they come in, that's a wrong thing. Why

Agriculture committee  We really believe that the enforcement is a big part of it because when one domino falls, without enforcement, what would be the deterrent to this reoccurring and for others to do that? I think enforcement is very much a component of all of this, absolutely. In a rural setting,

Agriculture committee  We're seeing that occur around the world, where it devastates the sectors in those countries. You can look at China, Germany, Poland, and on and on. Our industry here would be decimated—it would be mass euthanasia of the animals—because, folks, pork producers export 70% of what