Agriculture committee  We're not allowed to put potatoes on our land for seed production, and that is the strength in central Alberta. Central Alberta has a long and strong reputation internationally for seed potatoes. We would be allowed to put certain varieties on there, and then we would have to wa

Agriculture committee  That's correct.

Agriculture committee  I would think so.

Agriculture committee  I think probably we would in some sense still be starting from square one, because most of our clients will have gone out and sought new suppliers. Potato buyers or seed buyers are a very loyal bunch. We always appreciated that. So I think, to be responsible, our acreage would p

Agriculture committee  Something like a public exoneration for us would probably be very helpful in that situation.

Agriculture committee  We think there would probably have to be some alterations. If you're talking about something like AgriStability, there would have to be some alterations and special conditions applied to it, because we all know how AgriStability works, and obviously our revenues have dropped and

Agriculture committee  I think what we're looking for is some method for CFIA to lift these restrictions off our land. Unfortunately, the way the CFIA has been having to work—and I can empathize with that a little bit—is that they kind of take their marching orders from our trading partner. But they ne

Agriculture committee  I understand your question. I think there is a bit of history with nematodes on both sides of the border that probably has led to some concerns about this. We're all familiar with what happened in Quebec in 2006. Also, though, in Idaho in 2006 there was a find. Here again, thi

Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  I hope not.

Agriculture committee  What our trading partner is looking for is a smoking gun. I guess even the single find probably has our trading partner saying there has to be more than that. Through negotiations, CFIA went out looking for it and they couldn't find it. The way the samples are done is using a GP

Agriculture committee  Our understanding is that they found only one cyst. They've actually given us that information, but as you heard earlier on, we've had a very difficult time getting actual information as to how the whole protocol unfolded in the laboratory. What our knowledge is is that the cyst

Agriculture committee  We've lost most of our clients. In terms of being able to rent land around our farm, which has always been a big thing as we don't own a whole lot of our own land, it's going to be very, very difficult. Those of you in the room who are farmers know something called “coffee shop

Agriculture committee  I can answer for our situation. For the 8,000 tonnes that we threw out in 2007, we were well compensated. It was very unsure, though, even right after the incident, so it was kind of a gut-wrenching sequence of events before we finally did get the compensation. We had to spend a

Agriculture committee  Yes, absolutely.