International Trade committee  They are absolutely key. As we said, this is a package and we worked hard. It was clear that we needed.... The whole part about a supply management system is not that we don't import chicken. We import a significant amount of chicken. The point is to know how much of it is comin

International Trade committee  No. The TPP will not address that barrier at all. From a non-tariff barrier perspective, there still are barriers from a meat perspective. For example New Zealand doesn't import any chicken, and it isn't because of tariffs. It's because they just don't allow it in.

International Trade committee  I won't say we represent the processors; we have processors on our board. We work closely with the processors in a value-chain approach, and I think they would share the perspective on these issues that we have.

International Trade committee  Yes, we were intimately involved with the consultations and as you hear it from this side we're not opposed to a trade agreement. We're looking at a trade agreement and making sure a trade agreement works for Canada, but it works for us as well. We've had an ongoing relationship

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Eyking. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for inviting us to share our perspectives on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. My name is Mike Dungate. I'm the executive director of Chicken Farmers of Canada. With me today is my colleague Yves Ruel. He's our manager of tr

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Richards. It really is a process for us. We started with the on-farm food safety program. In fact, our on-farm food safety program will be mandatory in 10 provinces as of two weeks from now. Nova Scotia was the last province to come on; they have changed

Agriculture committee  I think the important part is that farmers realize it's important from a societal perspective and from a consumer perspective. If you asked a farmer about the cost, he would say that both the on-farm food safety and the animal care program are adding cost. That is not reflected i

Agriculture committee  Certainly. In a lot of cases, we would be looking at two real aspects, one on the farm and one from the transport perspective. Those are the two key areas. Part of the challenge for us, from a transport perspective, is with some of the climatic conditions we have—you're on the pr

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and committee members. Thank you for inviting us to talk to you about animal care today. I've provided you with a brief. I'm not going to read through the whole brief. I'll hit some high points—I know we're a little tight on time—and we'll allow

Agriculture committee  We actually got together as a value chain in all of poultry, so eggs, turkeys, hatching eggs, chickens, plus the processors, and we created the Canadian Poultry Research Council. We did that because we were seeing overlap in what we were doing. Frankly, in universities there al

Agriculture committee  I just wanted to add to that. Just so everybody understands, when we say 7.5% for us, that is based on what we produced in 2010. It increases every single year as we go along. When other countries talk about the access they provide, at the WTO it's based on the consumption from

Agriculture committee  I'll just do it quickly. I'll come back and talk off line. The price in the United States is less than what it is in Canada right now. The U.S. industry is having severe problems right now. Their largest processor, Pilgrim's Pride, went bankrupt at the start of 2009 and was boug

Agriculture committee  Can I comment? In terms of AgriStability, the issue is that we'll never trigger it. We're involved, but only at tier 3. You need a 30% reduction.

Agriculture committee  Never needing the program is a strength. From a livestock perspective overall, though, we're not following a crop year kind of thing. Our production will, in a lot of cases, go over both calendar and financial years. We'd have to lose three flocks in a row—half a year of product

Agriculture committee  It happens often. If we have an AI outbreak, and we've had it, generally we're able to get people back in two flocks.