Agriculture committee  We have to be careful there, though. Because of the skills we need in the industry, we don't want to diminish the value of the programs, either, by shortening them.

Agriculture committee  The only thing I was going to add is that one thing that might help our industry is to take a program similar to what Manitoba has, or Saskatchewan to a much smaller extent, whereby a student going to university who stays within that province will get a deduction on their tax for

Agriculture committee  I was just going to say that I think it would be very difficult for one particular dealer to try to know all three brands. I know I spend about $150,000 a year for training just on John Deere equipment, and to expect my people to know all the new changes to Caterpillar, Case, and

Agriculture committee  There are a couple of initiatives. One is that we worked with Olds College in the establishment of a completely new program. It's a sales and marketing initiative, where we've provided a $250,000 commitment to them over a five-year period. We have one year left in that commitment

Agriculture committee  It's particularly the large horsepower.

Agriculture committee  I'll first speak of Farm Credit Canada. We use them substantially in the financing of equipment; we have a relationship with them whereby when we complete a deal with a producer, we can send the information to Farm Credit and they'll approve it very quickly and fax all the contra

Agriculture committee  Of course there's a diversity of farmers out there, and the size, so those that need the proper capital appreciation are the ones putting a lot of acres through the.... Some of our large farmers are putting in 300 to 400 hours or more on a particular combine, and feeding lentil

Agriculture committee  I know John Deere just released a letter and I believe Case New Holland has one out and Caterpillar has one out as far as the amount of biodiesel they will warrant is concerned, if there is a warranty issue. I don't know that number, as Howard mentioned, but we could get those l

Agriculture committee  Nobody would need New Holland or Case equipment if they all had John Deere parts.

Agriculture committee  What it has the ability to do for us is to take some of the cyclical nature out of our business. Our business is not for the faint of heart. There is no such thing as a straight line in this: it is up and down, riding a roller coaster the whole time. This will have the potential

Agriculture committee  Apprenticeship programs are key in making sure that the space is there, that the qualified educators are there, and that the proper tools in the school system are there as well. We also require incentives for them to purchase their tools. Just recently—I believe it was just las

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chair, could I add to that, please? In my introductory remarks I mentioned that I have five stores. We were a single store to begin with and then expanded to five. Four of those five stores would not be in existence today had we not consolidated, which enables us to achieve

Agriculture committee  Generally any time an industry has a larger revenue stream, there is going to be an overall benefit. Also, with some of the innovativeness that we see in the rural community, if there's an opportunity, they're going to jump on it. In Shaunavon, south of Swift Current, a produce

Agriculture committee  Our dealership unertook an initiative a few years ago in which we went to Kazakhstan. The whole purpose was to export used equipment to Kazakhstan. My partner did three trips to that country, but it was a challenging market to try to break into. We did one container shipment to i

Agriculture committee  What I was going to add to that is that we don't always have the new buyer. There are some of the smaller farmers who can't afford the new equipment. That's why we have the recommendation as well to retrofit, re-power, and replace some of the older tractors that don't have the ti