Agriculture committee  I certainly appreciate that DPAC represents varying sizes of establishments. Also, we have a very good working relationship with the provincial organizations, which even take it down to the next level as well, to those entrepreneurial individuals. There is on-farm processing taki

Agriculture committee  I thought that was being addressed to the Beef Farmers. I'm sorry. Was I mistaken?

Agriculture committee  Certainly the balance of our system is between fat, as you have mentioned, and the solids-not-fat. There is a requirement in this country to be able to make sure that we balance the two, or else that will potentially mean restriction in our ability to continue to grow. Those pla

Agriculture committee  For dairy processing, that's not typically a program that our members would necessarily use. I know there are many other segments that utilize that as a methodology. My compatriots in the beef industry might be able to answer that better. It's not something that's typically used

Agriculture committee  I'm going to let Mathieu start on that one.

Agriculture committee  It does help in some respects, but there's a balance to that as well, depending upon the use of those TRQs. There are restrictions on how they can be used. Also, we have to put that into context on the demand in Canada for Canadian dairy product. You cannot label a product that

Agriculture committee  Yes, we certainly have laid out our concepts and our concerns on multiple occasions on being able to ask about the compensation and try to propose a framework, probably just as recently as last week, at the CDC meeting, where we again posed the question as well. There have been

Agriculture committee  I'll start, and then I'll let Mathieu finish. I didn't get to all the comments, and I appreciate this very much. First of all, we are not asking for something that has not been established in other countries. As I mentioned in the brief that was submitted, the U.K., Australia a

Agriculture committee  We recognize that the responsibility for such a code of conduct would rest with the provinces. We understand that. We appreciate that there is a federal initiative, a joint committee, going forward, but although there may not be the legislative ability to intervene, there is a mo

Agriculture committee  Yes, and to answer your question, the concept of the support of the compensation is so that we can reinvest and reinvent our industry to be able to face a new market reality. With restricted exports on products that have been an important growth element, being able to reinvent ou

Agriculture committee  Certainly there is an initiative going forward and a number of associations that are getting together. There is a committee, co-chaired by the Minister of Agriculture, that is also going forward with that. I can only put it into the recent context of Walmart and Loblaws, where t

Agriculture committee  I couldn't add any more than to say that innovation and investment go hand in hand and that there is a requirement to have both. Recognizing that we have a small population—I heard this said in the last panel as well—the ability to innovate and to seek markets elsewhere is a crit

Agriculture committee  I'll start and then I'll pass it to the Beef Farmers. Certainly, automation is a critical component. Labour, as I heard in the last panel, becomes a significant hurdle to our being able to go forward. As mentioned, the food industry, although it has experienced some roller coast

Agriculture committee  I certainly would agree that specialized fields are critical. I think what we need in certain areas is the ability to be able to have programs that would support. For example, I'm not the largest dairy processor, but I could probably hire anywhere between 15 and 20 apprentice mec

Agriculture committee  That's correct. We are purchasing milk and it's supply managed, so it's at a set price based upon the end use of the milk product that you use. We don't squeeze producers. I heard that mentioned in the last panel. Actually, the retailers squeeze us as the processor.