Agriculture committee  We do have a challenge with the British Columbia government. One of our biggest problems and handicaps is the fact that it does not have a huge agriculture budget and does not seem to have it as a huge priority there. Having said that, where its help has benefited us, and it wa

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much for the opportunity to present here. My presentation might become a little shorter here for the simple reason that I had added a portion on business risk management, and I'll remove that as you're dealing with science and innovation. I will restrict it, and it

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. Despite the challenges of the last eight years, the beef industry remains one of the biggest generators of gate cash receipts in Canada. In 2010, cattle-calf receipts in Canada totalled over $6 billion, with beef production contributing $24.6 billion. Of thi

Finance committee  Exactly, and with CFIA, we'd say a major revamp of the organization fundamentally.

Finance committee  That would be the main thing: accessibility and some of the guidelines put around that for us. The AgriFlexibility that we did manage to get is greatly appreciated. The part we appreciate most about the Growing Forward program is the ability to fix what is there and put the mone

Finance committee  Yes, I can handle this a little bit better for you. We're basically at about a $37 difference between Canada and the U.S. in SRM removal. That is specifically because the U.S. has a different list of what they have to remove. The CFIA and Canadian regulations have implemented a

Finance committee  Per animal--about $37 per head more for the extra we take out and remove.

Finance committee  Yes, very huge. To put it into context in pounds, the U.S. removes about 1.5 kilograms of specified risk material to our 50 kilograms.

Finance committee  We're working diligently with the CFIA to see if we can shorten that list, number one, so that we're harmonized with the U.S. on the regulations and the short and long lists are the same. As well, one of the big problems here is where to get rid of it. In British Columbia, for

Finance committee  It definitely is. One of the big things is that Canada has admitted to the fact that we've had BSE, whereas other countries have not necessarily and--

Finance committee  Definitely, and we have a harder time getting those markets open as well.

Finance committee  Not necessarily: standards are put there that we have to follow and we've just gone above and beyond.

Finance committee  We've had some programs that are in there to do it. The big problem is that in the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency, which is charged to implement it, the technology isn't there yet to do it. Most of the money has gone to trying to improve that technology and get it in place

Finance committee  Agriculture Canada has been working on it. We've been working on it for about ten years trying to get that technology as it builds forward. The problem is that it has been mandated by 2011 and it is just impossible to get there by that point. Other countries around the world have