International Trade committee  Good afternoon. Thank you for inviting us to speak to the members of the committee about our point of view on the agreement between Canada and the United Kingdom, and also on the agreement Canada signed with the European Union a few years ago. In Canada, one out of every eight j

International Trade committee  Okay. The United Kingdom is Canada's fifth-largest trading partner. Canadian exports to the United Kingdom were approximately $20 billion in 2019, and its imports from the UK totalled $9 billion, for a positive trade balance of $10.6 billion. It's a key partner. One of the outc

International Trade committee  Thank you for your question. This bill is definitely a good idea if it confirms the genuine commitment of all the political parties to this principle, and even whichever of the parties might one day form the government and be involved in bilateral or multilateral negotiations.

International Trade committee  In the United Kingdom, there are of course specialty cheeses of interest to Canadians. The United Kingdom will definitely target this market here in Canada. There is also beef. People may not know this, but we import more beef from the United Kingdom than we export to them. And y

International Trade committee  There are several parts to your question. First of all, with respect to CETA, it's true that the problem is not in the actual wording of the agreement. The problem is that Canada doesn't force Europeans to meet their commitments, in particular with respect to non-tariff barriers

International Trade committee  I consider it to be somewhat like the approach adopted for climate. No single country can settle the climate issue. It's a world issue. The same is the case for food. We think that the Food and Agriculture Organization might be an appropriate body for an international agreement o

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, members of the committee. My name is Marcel Groleau, and I am the general president of the Union des producteurs agricoles, or UPA. With me is Marc St-Roch, a specialist in agricultural taxation. He has the expertise to answer more technica

Finance committee  It wasn't me. My mike was off.

Finance committee  The Quebec government has corrected the situation in its tax system without it becoming a loophole to financial arrangements to circumvent the tax law. So it is possible to do it, and it is advantageous. In fact, it does not confer an additional benefit on family farms; rather, i

Finance committee  As noted in the presentation, 40% of small family businesses will be transferred in the next few years, based on the average age of the owners. These businesses represent $50 billion in assets. Usually, when a farm business is transferred to the next generation, the tax savings

Finance committee  In Quebec, the Commission de protection du territoire agricole provides data on this issue. All that is documented in municipal registries. We are seeing that an increasing number of transactions involving farmland are carried out by investors rather than by producers. This means

Finance committee  I would like to answer Mr. Kelly's question. First, the situation is a bit different in the agricultural sector because of the assets' value compared with the return on assets. In agriculture, the rule is that $6 to $7 must be invested to generate $1 of income, while in commerce

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee. My name is Marcel Groleau, and I am the general president of the Union des producteurs agricoles, or UPA, which represents Quebec’s 29,000 farms. Joining me is Denis Roy, an immigration consultant at the UPA. From

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In conclusion, I would say that farm workers are absolutely essential, and they must be taken into consideration by all federal departments and agencies.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  These programs need to be simplified.