Agriculture committee  Do as they do, not as they say.

Agriculture committee  We did have a minimum price on Washington red and golden delicious apples back in the early to mid-nineties. We were told at the time that we would have that for a five-year period, and then the industry would have to find ways to adapt to the market signals. After three years, t

Agriculture committee  Absolutely. I'll expand briefly. I'd have to look at the juice a little closer to give you an educated guess as to where it's from. The buy local...I'm going to call it a tsunami. It's still building; it's still way out in the ocean, and it hasn't crested yet. Local farmers' m

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. Thank you for the opportunity to offer input on some of the competitiveness issues affecting the horticultural sector of agriculture in Canada. As Larry mentioned, my name is Brian Gilroy. I am an apple grower just south of Meaford, Ontario, in the chair's h

Agriculture committee  Yes. Just briefly, on the whole notion from agriculture, when the APF-1 consultations took place, we had three or four key criteria for a business risk management program: pay out in a timely fashion, keep it simple or predictable, and make it bankable. CAIS is zero for three.

Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  This is a personal opinion. We've heard the term “entitlement program”. If someone is farming, in Ontario anyway, they get 75% rebate on their property taxes because we know that farming isn't a very profitable thing and is facing many challenges. The NISA program was a good prog

Agriculture committee  The Canadian Horticultural Council, working with the grape industry, has made a presentation to the federal government with all the provinces on board. Each individual province also has negotiated with their provincial government for a replant program separately. B.C. has had one

Agriculture committee  At this moment in time, it's the federal government. We need Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's support for a national program, at which point every major apple-producing province will have federal support and provincial support, because the Ontario government--

Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  We're supportive of the B.C. program recommendation about a minimum price. Washington State produces almost as many apples as the rest of North America put together. They're huge. They have huge market clout, and some years they just wipe us off the face of the map; 2004 was one

Agriculture committee  The costs of the replant program over seven years to the federal government would be $100 million. That's the estimate.

Agriculture committee  Over seven years. That's the national program. It's not a lot that we're asking for. Currently, Ontario growers are at an incredible disadvantage because everybody else has one but us. Anyway, that's the answer to your question. The other one had to do with what drove production

Agriculture committee  On core funding, the Canada-Ontario R and D program has provided much-needed support for research and market development and has helped producers target the research where it does them the most good. The current round of funding has all but been exhausted. We strongly recommend t

Agriculture committee  Our next suggestion is enhanced funding for the environmental farm plan. Farmers are incredible stewards of the land, and the demands on them are increasing annually, it seems. Farmers have accepted the need to develop and implement environmental farm plans for their operations.