Agriculture committee  If I can just say, Mr. Chair, in terms of looking at some of the things you can put back on the table, including the Easter report, there was an APF review, chaired by Ed Tyrchniewicz, that every producer in this country sat at the table with, along with government. I wonder, did

Agriculture committee  I think it's going to come down to a relative amount of resolve, as you say, and some negotiating skill. I think it's going to lie in the area of sensitive products and how we treat that, and how smart we are at rationalizing what sensitive products are going to be. I think we ca

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chair, we're looking at protecting a domestic industry; we're not trying to infringe on what's happening south of the border or in other countries. We want to protect our domestic industry, and I don't think you have to stretch very far to rationalize that. Moving away from

Agriculture committee  I think with this whole issue of developing ethanol, biodiesel, or biofuel we have to be careful it doesn't become a double-edged sword. We're not going to get rich in Newfoundland and Labrador in developing ethanol, believe me. One would have to think that if it can increase dem

Agriculture committee  Yes, I'll go first. I'm not sure we have consensus, and I'm not sure we'll ever achieve consensus on where we should go. But there's no question, a lot of what we do is going to be contained in the language. I'd say in terms of where the public comes from, we do it the hard wa

Agriculture committee  Companion programs, yes. We have this issue about developing land. We don't have a lot of land when it comes to agriculture in Newfoundland and Labrador, so we have to use everything we have. Almost, sometimes, when a little bit of dirt falls on the rooftop, we need to go after i

Agriculture committee  Well, I think we've contrived more of the issue than actually is there in reality; we're a little bit afraid. It's all, don't do this because we'll get hit with countervailing duties. I also sat in on that when we were trying to do something about the declining margins for farm

Agriculture committee  Absolutely. Let's start with the farm bill. The CFA has done a pretty good job with it. They can make some improvements to it, but I think we have to have the farm bill, otherwise we're on a tilted playing field with the U.S. It is a lot about the U.S. versus Canada and the EU ve

Agriculture committee  Thank you. We've created an APF and we've created different pillars, and the idea I think was to nest it all together and to have it fairly comprehensive. But we didn't do that; we just simply didn't end up doing that. So we started to come in the back door and do some things in

Agriculture committee  Yes, if we can get some strategic arrangements built into the development. If we're not so paranoid with countervail and being able to use the word “expansion”, that we don't run and scurry and get—We're so afraid of what's happening south of border. One of the things we do in N

Agriculture committee  Yes, maybe. There is one thing about the CAIS program—the BRM program that we have—and that is that even though it may not hit the target, it's got good intentions. There's no doubt about that. Sometimes we say there's not enough money there, but by and large, there not being eno

Agriculture committee  Sorry about that.

Agriculture committee  I have 10 minutes. I have to move along.

Agriculture committee  We certainly need to match the opportunity with the right kind of investment, especially at the primary production level. Of course, we have to recognize there is a lot of restraint around moving things forward in any capacity when you're an agricultural producer. On obtaining

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Before I start—and I'm a bit reluctant to do this—it seems evident from so many years of experience here that a lot of people don't know where Newfoundland and Labrador is located, so I brought some maps. I actually highlighted the Newfoundland pa