International Trade committee  I'll comment on that. I do believe we passed around to you some talking points for you to use when you go to the U.S. We think they're pretty key. I want to highlight a couple of things for you in that. There are many small, independent farms in the U.S. that rely on Canadian

International Trade committee  Canada Pork International's budget for their new business plan over five years is $5.5 million. We export in tonnage three times even what beef does, and our budget is one-third the size. We don't have the ability to get more. Half of that is from our producers and also from the

International Trade committee  Yes. I agree with a lot of the points, but we have to remember as well that the ability to trade live animals into the U.S. also creates an advantage. When you have fluctuations in numbers and we don't have an ability--if there's a breakdown, or a strike, or there are seasonal

International Trade committee  Absolutely, yes.

International Trade committee  I think what it also does is it makes North America less competitive with the rest of the world. On the pork side, Canada and the U.S. jointly make up nearly 50% of the world trade in pork. What this is now doing is making North America less competitive with the rest of the world

International Trade committee  I'll have Martin answer this one, if you don't mind.

International Trade committee  Let me put it this way. Because of the rules in the past, we've developed an integrated North American market. Manitoba has become a leader in producing weanling hogs, sending them down to the midwest to finish. So it's been good for Manitoba producers, and it's been good for the

International Trade committee  Thank you for the question. I think there are several things that can be done, and I think you heard the very positive comments on the beef legacy fund. I think for the pork industry, we need to develop a similar fund. As you realize, the pork industry exports over one million

International Trade committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I do appreciate the opportunity to present to this international trade committee meeting. As you well know, our Canadian hog producers are continuing to battle an unprecedented period of losses on their farms. The hog sector crisis is now int

Agriculture committee  I think that's a very fair question. We battle with this ourselves as well, because you can ask the question, is it worthwhile saving the industry? If the decision is that it isn't, then do nothing. But we feel that, yes, it is worthwhile saving, for a lot of the reasons we menti

Agriculture committee  There's no question that COOL and market access are on the top of our mind. Right now, though, in addition to that is our viability and the ability to continue as producers because of our financial crunch. The financial crisis our producers are facing is extremely important, beca

Agriculture committee  We're constantly in discussions with members of Parliament or the minister, but also with government officials. In fact, we have a meeting set up to talk to this specific issue in 10 days, so we will be exploring what possibilities might exist. I don't know where those discussi

Agriculture committee  Absolutely. We work very closely with the National Pork Producers Council on the hog side. They're as opposed to COOL as we are and always have been. But what has happened is that the Bush administration had put the final rule in place. Then when the Obama administration came in,

Agriculture committee  No, there's no response as yet. We've had discussions with them, and the minister has been very good in terms of all the negotiations that were going on. We were quite informed and we were part of those discussions and suggestions on how to move forward; however, as yet, we have

Agriculture committee  We feel it needs to be addressed, as Martin stated. We need to go straight to the White House as quickly as possible.