Agriculture committee  That's a complex question. We would see, again, a multi-faceted answer. First, we think, long-term, the answer is that we need a very competitive business regulatory environment in this country and we also need competitive market access globally. We believe our industry can compe

Agriculture committee  Thank you for the opportunity to appear. Also, I'd personally like to invite each one of you to our reception on Wednesday evening.

Agriculture committee  Yes, we can do that.

Agriculture committee  The first thing I'll say is that the recommendations we put forward are very credible and responsible. I can't honestly answer as to whether we're closer today with implementation of those recommendations. I have had assurance that they are in full consideration, and I recognize

Agriculture committee  I can't name particular provinces, because I'm not aware of them. With the budgetary realities, the fiscal realities across this country right now, these may be challenging recommendations, yet we believe they are responsible recommendations to implement.

Agriculture committee  We have the most important market opened up behind Canada, and that is the U.S. But in terms of the remaining markets to open, if we could move Japan from under 21 months to under 30 months, our information tells us that would have a direct effect on fed cattle prices in Canada.

Agriculture committee  Again, as I've explained, we view this solution as a short-term one with two objectives. The primary objective is to keep the processing capacity in Canada for producers today, tomorrow, and down the road. That is really our primary objective in terms of this program, and that wi

Agriculture committee  We've forwarded those recommendations. We discussed them. They're in federal-provincial discussions. Clearly the provinces have to be onside with the changes as well. A number of our members have made those recommendations provincially. We believe the recommendations would improv

Agriculture committee  We know there are opposing forces out there. We have the Beef Information Centre, which is the North American industry's marketing-arm promotion group, which works to put forward facts on beef consumption, nutrition, and that kind of thing. Critical work will need to be accomplis

Agriculture committee  I don't have any figures with me today, in terms of hard numbers, that I could pass along. I apologize for that. But certainly every analyst I've sat with in the last year...whether it be CanFax on the Canadian side, or CattleFax on the U.S. side, the number one story has been la

Agriculture committee  We have a few recommendations on the books regarding AgriStability, recommendations we believe would improve the program and make it more responsive to cattle producers across the country. The first recommendation, regarding the reference margin calculation, is that the governmen

Agriculture committee  We appreciate your work in Washington on the country-of-origin labelling file. Traceability is an issue our industry is dealing with currently. It's an issue our industry began dealing with in about 1998, when we established animal ID across the country, and traceability is a fi

Agriculture committee  Well, we too agree that we need a solution, but in my view, it's going to be about a three-pronged solution. I think we would see the ultimate solution as harmonization of our regulatory playing field with that of the U.S., but we know that we're some days, or months, or perhaps

Agriculture committee  I think this budget announcement is one of the short-term solutions that was partially a result of collective agreement among producers across Canada, including producers in Quebec, as they saw a need for, in the short term, some cost offset on SRM disposal. Again, we believe th

Agriculture committee  Well, we were very pleased with the establishment of the market access secretariat. Obviously, as an industry that depends on exports, this secretariat that has been wholly set aside to deal with market access issues is welcome. The market access secretariat has been working to g