Agriculture committee  Good afternoon, hon. members. I'd like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak before the committee today. My name is Catherine Lefebvre, and I'm the president of the Quebec Produce Growers Association, or QPGA. With me today is our general manager, Patrice Léger Bo

Agriculture committee  We're competing with international markets. Today, vegetables from Mexico are coming into the country, while we still offer vegetables in Quebec. As for the cost of labour, wages are $80, $100 or $120 a week in Mexico, while the wages for a similar number of hours of work here ar

Agriculture committee  In terms of reciprocity of standards, the reference margins are quite different from those of our neighbouring countries or countries that produce the same vegetables as we do. In Mexico and Guatemala, for example, the on‑farm food safety and environmental standards are completel

Agriculture committee  We are currently losing orders for root vegetables from Quebec. For my farm alone, two orders that were going to be exported on the weekend were cancelled. The price difference is unbelievable. The exchange rate usually helps, but it's not that different right now. We also have

Agriculture committee  Yes, we definitely need a code of conduct, but we also need programs to support farmers. We want to feed people, but we don't want to feed them at a loss. It's the loss of businesses that we foresee, in many cases, those that will not be able to make it.

Agriculture committee  Yes. We can go even further than that and talk about wash water, for which new committees and new standards are added every day, every week and every month.

Agriculture committee  For impeccable employers, it has to be three‑year predetermined contracts. It isn't complicated. Currently, processing a request normally takes 20 weeks. Today, Service Canada still processes applications manually. This results in a processing time of 12 to 15 weeks. This leaves

Agriculture committee  Mr. Léger Bourgoin, could you answer that?

Agriculture committee  We have to be careful. We don't really endorse—

Agriculture committee  We would like nothing better than to have a joint committee of those three departments. We've done the same thing on our side. We've created a committee that brings together the Union des producteurs agricoles, or UPA, the Quebec Produce Growers Association, or QPGA, and the Fond

Agriculture committee  I would ask Mr. Léger Bourgoin to complete my answer.

Agriculture committee  We would like [Technical difficulty—Editor], but we aren't hearing [Technical difficulty—Editor] of promises or anything so far. This is our solution. It's a solution [Technical difficulty—Editor].

Agriculture committee  Yes, absolutely.

Agriculture committee  We have a vegetable innovation fund that is taking shape. This fund will be used only for research to produce field vegetables. We are currently limited in what we can offer our members, but this project will change everything.

Agriculture committee  If I may, I'd like to respond to you on risk management. I agree with Ms. Ward on the AgriStability program that it would take a majority of provinces to sign on to for changes to occur. When we hear about a 100% rate to increase AgriStability margins, we find that incomprehensi