Agriculture committee  A lot of people talk about hidden taxes on inputs. We don't see that as a large problem. In the current environment, we're not even sure that tax cuts to these manufacturers would be passed on to farmers. When we look at the margins they're taking right now and the price increase

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Steckle. We agree about the Competition Bureau. As an organization, we went in front of the Competition Bureau to talk about one of the latest mergers that came on the radar, the Cargill takeover of Better Beef. We predicted disastrous outcomes for farmers, and su

Agriculture committee  Yes, very briefly, it is a question of power. The problem Canadian farmers are having is that they produce huge profits. The efficiency numbers are incredible. The production numbers are incredible. But the places where profits are made and the places where profits are captured a

Agriculture committee  Thank you. The question, Alex, that I hear from you is about competition on the fertilizer side, and we're profoundly lacking in competition there. When you look at the graph we've included in our report, the companies as much as say they raise prices when the price of grain goe

Agriculture committee  Well, I think there's room for helping farmers create their own buying co-ops. The current co-ops right now are probably focused on other things, but I think more farmer groups getting together.... More than just cooperatives, though; legislated farmer buying units, in order to p

Agriculture committee  I can second that. We shouldn't have to commission farm organizations to get this kind of data. If Stats Canada and the government collected and published this kind of data, it would really help us as farmers to bargain with those Canadian companies.

Agriculture committee  If fertilizer companies are coming down here trying to explain high fertilizer prices by the cost of fencing and security, they're just engaging in misdirection. When you read the presentations they're making to bankers in the United States and to shareholders meetings around t

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much for the question. We've heard about own-use importation. Ways of creating competition in the market are a good thing. There are a number of other things we can do. One, we can get some good data. In the late 1990s, Statistics Canada ceased publishing input co

Agriculture committee  Mergers of input supply companies, mergers of.... We used to have half a dozen machinery companies. Now we've got two and a half. Cattle producers are suffering because we're down to two and a half packers.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think you've all received the French and English versions of a four-pager we prepared. I'm not going to read it, but I'm going to refer to some of the graphs in it, so you might want to have it handy. The National Farmers Union is extremely concerned a

Agriculture committee  Thank you for that question. I'll make three quick points that I think build on each other. In terms of production and supply and the often cited overproduction, if it ever was a reality, it is less and less so. In six of the last seven years, the world consumed more grain than

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Alex. I think this really is something that's needed. As we have globalized our markets, what's happened is that farmers have been forced into an increasingly competitive environment. It's simple economics. As that has driven up our competition, and we're suddenly in