Agriculture committee  I would just like to answer your question about the slaughter facilities that have signed an agreement that binds producers and processors in Quebec. Because these are all federally-inspected slaughterhouses, that does not affect us. The other slaughterhouses are under provincial

Agriculture committee  I do want to say, as I pointed out in my presentation, that advance payments programs were implemented last year, which greatly assisted Quebec producers. About 700 producers benefited from a total of $125 million in loans. We also asked for a reprieve on payments due this spring

Agriculture committee  You began by talking about market access, and you are right. If you read the report released by the European Union with respect with the use of the green and amber boxes, you can see that there has been a transfer between the amber and the green boxes. The solution is to work wit

Agriculture committee  I think we need to ask ourselves whether the export market has a future. Why do we export? First of all, we export when there is demand for our products. Analysts around the globe are all saying that the population is increasing. We will need more and more products to feed people

Agriculture committee  The hog industry in Quebec operates under a collective marketing system and has signed an agreement with processors. We are about to sign an agreement with our processors. Under that agreement, we undertake, as producers, to provide the product our customers want. In exchange, pr

Agriculture committee  Good morning everyone. Thank you very much for giving us this opportunity to express our views to the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food. On behalf of all the pork producers in Quebec, I want to thank you for inviting the Fédération des producteurs de porcs du Québe

Agriculture committee  I beg your pardon, I did not understand the question.

Agriculture committee  If I am not mistaken, the moratorium was in 2002. At the end of the day, the effect of a moratorium is felt in the prices and costs that we are getting today. Furthermore, in 2005, production fell in Quebec due to disease. Vaccination helped, but we are of the opinion that many p

Agriculture committee  I believe that a lot of improvements have to be made in order to address producers' wishes. I think there's still a lot of work to do. As Mr. Dessureault was saying earlier, we need programs that take into account what truly goes on at the farm and fluctuating production costs.

Agriculture committee  It's because the packing plant owners are the ones who decide. As producers, we ask them to be much more efficient and to run two work shifts. In a study carried out at the George Morris Centre, Mr. Kevin Grier did a cost analysis of packing plants in Canada, the United States,

Agriculture committee  Yes. We're not talking just about pork, but about all imported products. Once we impose rules to protect the consumer, why not impose the same rules for consumer protection on imported products?

Agriculture committee  Yes, we have these advantages, our product is recognized. But at the present time, we have to support our hog industry in Canada. That is what we are saying. At the World Conference in China, all the countries in the world recognized this fact. Once retailers base their prices a

Agriculture committee  In terms of Canada's export volume as compared to the world production, I think there is a great deal of room to sell our Canadian products throughout the world. That is why it is important for the Government of Canada to maintain our production at a level such that... Producers

Agriculture committee  When we talk about regulations and we think about consumers who want regulations, we introduce regulations to protect them. At the same time, consumers do not buy these products, because they are too expensive. That is what we are talking about when we talk about domestic and int

Agriculture committee  We are essentially talking about demand. Canadian products enjoy a good reputation among pork exporting countries. Nevertheless, we are concerned as to how long it would take us to get our markets back if we lost them. I also wanted to say that if you really want to promote Cana