Agriculture committee  On the question of the Wheat Board, there are, I believe, many studies that have been done in the past about the economic effects of the monopoly, but in relation to whether the government commissioned any studies before coming forward with the latest legislation, I'm not aware o

Agriculture committee  The question really goes to a decision about whether legislation could be changed, and that's not really one as an official that it's appropriate for me to answer. Those decisions are, of course, decisions for ministers. I think the early witnesses identified a number of legisl

Agriculture committee  Again, I think, with respect, it's a hypothetical question of going toward policy and not one that I'm in a position to really answer.

Agriculture committee  Perhaps I can begin, and others can supplement my answer. I think what we've heard today, and what we've heard in our discussions with the industry over the past couple of months, is that this is almost an unprecedented situation. The confluence of events--the appreciation of th

Agriculture committee  I think I can add that another area we need to focus on is the whole area of regulation, making sure we have the right balance, that producers have access to the technologies they need to be competitive. Things such as health claims are available. I heard earlier in the year some

Agriculture committee  Thank you. Let me say that as we move forward in developing the Growing Forward framework for non-business-risk management, one of the things we want to achieve is greater flexibility region by region to meet specific needs. So if you're trying to address with producers a specif

Agriculture committee  Perhaps Dr. Fortin could begin by talking about what we're doing in terms of innovation with the provinces and with the sector.

Agriculture committee  I think obviously there are two ways of looking at this. There is the prescriptive approach, which would require, to the extent that it's consistent with our international obligations, certain percentages of inputs being sourced locally. The other approach is where you promote th

Agriculture committee  The response to the report pointed out the approach of Correctional Service Canada. Again, I think it's an issue of availability and obligations. Typically, trade agreements do control the extent to which government procurement can favour domestic, as opposed to the partners. And

Agriculture committee  I'll begin. I think you know when we talk about the sector we sometimes talk about it as one, but it is a multi-faceted sector and various parts of the sector depend to a greater or lesser extent on exports. In the supply-managed area we have a made-in-Canada system, which is

Agriculture committee  I think I indicated that producers haven't asked for ad hoc payments, but they've certainly asked for assistance. I don't want to give the impression that they haven't asked for assistance. Again, in addressing the liquidity issues, I think it goes without saying that the proble

Agriculture committee  The funding under the APF went to a range of groups, including 4-H and Canadian Young Farmers, on a range of different programs. It depended from province to province. We had a national partnership with these groups and worked with them to define what the needs were in particular

Agriculture committee  Perhaps just coming back to the sugar beets issue, we are funding, I think, two feasibility studies on the biofuels opportunities for—

Agriculture committee  But on the issue of agreement with the provinces, we have an agreement on the business risk management aspects of Growing Forward. Those will come in, at the latest, by April 2008. We have agreements to go through and the process to go through to make that happen; we have an agre

Agriculture committee  It's not easy to give a percentage, but under the APF we devoted about $120 million a year to cost-matched programs and non-business risk management with the provinces. That amount in Growing Forward has yet to be determined, but we would hope to build on that. We will know that