Agriculture committee  So, for example, one of the ways we're looking to mitigate is through the cement business, but essentially still you have to take the rendered products, get it to the cement manufacturer, and as Dennis said, they're not necessarily going to pay you for it, they're going to charge you for it.

Agriculture committee  My last comment on this is that it's important to realize the two streams coming out of the rendering process. Go back to the process, which is that the raw material goes in, water is evaporated off, and two usable streams come out--one is the tallow and the fats. The tallow and the fats actually are either going into commercial use for chemicals, feed fat, or actually being used in biodiesel in Montreal.

Agriculture committee  I think those were and are for capital improvements. If you look down the chain, Kathleen's group, as I said earlier, can be ready today because they don't have to buy it. As for Jim's people, from the packing standpoint, I'm not sure if you're absolutely sure they can all be ready by a certain date, but the larger ones will be ready, or it'll all be SRM material anyway.

Agriculture committee  I could maybe follow up on that by painting the volume picture a little bit. These are estimates--because we don't really know until things come out--but essentially we're looking at approximately 4,000 metric tonnes a week of specified risk material across the country that has to be dealt with.

Agriculture committee  Landfills are in the same situation as everybody else here. I talked about the access to capital. Some of these landfills actually have to open up space, or whatever. If they've applied for capital, they're not going to do anything until they've been given approval. Plus, there's some permitting.

Agriculture committee  It's interesting to understand what Mr. Steckle said earlier, that this is going to cost the country money versus the Americans because we're not harmonized. Everybody understands that. We're dealing with it. The issue now is that because we're so close to the deadline, it's going to cost us possibly a whole lot more.

Agriculture committee  I think that post-BSE, they've essentially eliminated any type of ruminant-based feed from the feed chain. Depending on where you are in Europe, they've done anything from putting it back through cement kilns to storing it in airport hangers to incinerate it. But it has been a huge cost to either the industry or the governments.

Agriculture committee  From a decision-making standpoint, as I laid out here, all the provinces are important, but the three provinces that have the most volume are Alberta, Quebec, and Ontario. They are all in at least forms of dealing with whether to render the product down and find a way to dispose of it.

Agriculture committee  If you go back to what I was talking about, it's important to note that there are two streams coming out of the rendering process. One is tallow-based, or oils. We're using some of it in our biodiesel plant in Montreal, which I believe some of you were scheduled to go to last June.

Agriculture committee  For on-farm, an abattoir associated with a farm is allowed to compost the SRM material. If it's an abattoir not associated with a farm, for example, it cannot do so. The regulation states that.

Agriculture committee  In Ontario, possibly there will only be 160 tonnes of specified risk material. But if I could, I'd just follow up on what Kathleen said, because it is important. First of all, her members could essentially enact the ban from their perspective today, because they're the purchasers of the product.

Agriculture committee  I think it's important to note that although the technical date is July 12, as Kathleen, who is the purchaser of the products, says, the reality is that the date is sooner than that. We have definitely been talking to the government about that since last summer and been pointing out that we have to get going on this, because the ability to execute is hard, even starting back then.

Agriculture committee  Let me reread...for example, I'll use Alberta, which is dealing with the largest amount: “The independent renderer operating in these provinces expects to receive and process the SRM material from the two packer renderers.” So West Coast Reduction, which has a rendering plant, will build another line.

Agriculture committee  I'd like to make one comment on that as well. One of the things in the regulation is a six-month exemption for small abattoirs. Essentially, once the SRM rule comes in, that exemption really won't.... That would be meaningless, because for anybody who's going to pick up their material at that plant, it will be essentially SRM.

Agriculture committee  Good afternoon. My name is Kevin Golding. I'm president of the Canadian Renderers Association and president of Rothsay Recycling, one of the member companies. The Canadian Renderers Association represents Canada's independent renderers. By way of background, the committee needs to draw a distinction between a packer renderer and an independent renderer.