Bill C-18 committee  I think the confidence is demonstrated in the commitment of the Government of Canada to pass the legislation.

Bill C-18 committee  Again, I think there are two issues at play here: the transparency of price signals that will now be in place with the new marketing system; and on the quality side there will again be research that is supported by the check-off as well as the work of the Canadian Grains Commissi

Bill C-18 committee  Mr. Chair, I think on this issue I'll say two things. Certainly, in terms of the work we did as a group, we were attentive to what I would call the anti-competitive behaviour of the players in the supply chain. Members did, at the end of the day, want to monitor very closely how

Bill C-18 committee  I can't verify those figures. I think that the general understanding is that in terms of barley and wheat relative to the other crops of canola and pulse, there's been a decline in relative shares. However, I'd be glad to ask my department to look at these issues.

Bill C-18 committee  I can't verify those numbers. I can refer people to the George Morris study that was released yesterday, which showed, again, that in terms of relative prices, the prices of wheat and barley have fallen relative to those that have been strong on the canola and the pulse side. In

Bill C-18 committee  Mr. Chair, I think there are a number of tools at play here, and I'd turn to Mr. Meredith to talk about those tools.

Bill C-18 committee  I'll start and then turn it over to Murdoch MacKay. The working group recommended that the right to ship producer cars remains in the Canada Grain Act, and of course that's reflected in Bill C-18. We also spent a good deal of time talking about the importance of having a sales p

Bill C-18 committee  I think, Mr. Chair, what we can say on this is that the working group did look very seriously, as we mentioned, in terms of its mandate, at the issues related to access to producer cars and short lines. We just spoke about those issues. We also looked very seriously at the issue

Bill C-18 committee  On this particular issue, we did look at what monitoring means, and we discussed it at some length. I think we've already discussed in earlier testimony some of the tools available to us. I'll ask Mr. Meredith to talk to those issues again.

Bill C-18 committee  These are public reports, and I can provide a list of the reports.

Bill C-18 committee  I'm calculating it will be two, but it might be four.

Bill C-18 committee  Perfect. I think you'll recall, Mr. Chair, that we did provide to the committee yesterday with some charts that set out the staging of the bill, as well as the transition phases. I'd just like to provide an overview of the legislation that is being introduced. The intent of th

Bill C-18 committee  As I just explained, the purpose of the bill is not to see to it that the minister approve the business plan of a new Canadian Wheat Board. In other words, the idea is simply to review the business plan, in order to ensure that the money paid by Canadian taxpayers in connection w

Bill C-18 committee  Perhaps I'll refer again to the working group report that we discussed last evening. The expectation is that this dual marketing system for farmers, which will give an opportunity to opt for pooling or for spot market prices, will lead to growth. What we have seen with the non-

Bill C-18 committee  The moneys in the contingency fund, which is being provided for through the operating activities of the Wheat Board, are not considered to be dollars derived from the farmers' pool. This is the way the accounting procedures are developed at the Wheat Board itself. These moneys