Agriculture committee  I appreciate the comments on the concern of those who are 55. I'm so thrilled that I fall slightly under that. I'm still a young farmer, as they say, but my father is 82. He is still on the farm, because he loves it. Having said that, it's not as much of an issue in supply manage

Agriculture committee  In the interest of time, I won't repeat everything Caroline said, but I agree wholeheartedly with her statement. All I'm saying—and I'll let Mr. Boyd add some context to this—is that is something we're well aware of. In the Asian community, we don't enjoy the same popularity tha

Agriculture committee  I think specifically, as I had indicated earlier,—and, again, my comments were brief and didn't go into detail—this is where research comes into play. For instance, in a very broad sense, in the last 25 or so years in the turkey industry alone, and it's reflected in other poultry

Agriculture committee  To be quite frank, that's the first I've heard of transition. That, to me, smacks of short term, which is what comes into my mind, and that would concern me, because it's not just a.... This is pure speculation on my part. You never want a band-aid solution just to get over that

Agriculture committee  It's good to hear you're a fan of turkey. We're always looking for those. I didn't think I would come and get recipes, but that's also a bonus. This committee is squarely on the ball. In all seriousness, though, thank you for the question. Interestingly enough, we're partnered t

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'll quickly introduce myself. My name, as stated, is Mark Davies and I'm the chair of Turkey Farmers of Canada. I have a farm in the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia where I raise turkeys, and I've done so for 25 years. I'm also a second-gener

Agriculture committee  I'll just let Phil make a couple of comments, if he would.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much for the question. The short answer would be not in any formal sense. It's not as if there's a course of business acumen to take and here's some.... It's more we could provide resources and some direction. Inherent in supply management--and Ron has touched o

Agriculture committee  Thanks very much for the question. It's interesting. I agree that we need new farmers and this influx of new blood. Quite honestly, within our industry there is quite a good influx of generational farmers. That's not really an issue. I think that's common across supply managemen

Agriculture committee  You've hit the nail on the head as far as an input cost in most livestock, and in particular in poultry. One thing I will point out is that looking toward the future we don't see any real relief in sight. We see this as an increasing input. And without getting into a long, drawn

Agriculture committee  At TFC, a turkey is a turkey, to be quite upfront about it. Not to speak for any other jurisdiction, but Ontario has a comprehensive plan in place to deal with the market segment termed organic. That's a frustration even among different processors looking for “more of their share

Agriculture committee  I echo a lot of Ron's sentiments. He stole some of my thunder with the examples of the Tim Hortons and obviously some of the restaurants that are opening in your area. I'm sure they're not for free. In our industry it's a little different from dairy. It's more provincially base

Agriculture committee  At this point, I would have a cautionary no. I think it's working fairly well. This has really become an issue, I would say, in the last ten years. Ron has touched on a lot of the issues. Inherent in supply management is a lot of regulation to adhere to when it comes to food sa

Agriculture committee  I may defer part of that--

Agriculture committee  Okay, well, then, no comment. I share some of the same issues. In fact we've had an issue in the past year because of some of the challenges we've had in our market over the last 24 months. Our market tends to follow alongside the economy because of a lot of the higher-value cut