Agriculture committee  Clearly, put the energy and resources into the trade secretariat, which the government has announced is moving forward. When you look at the ability of countries to negotiate, Australia and New Zealand have done some extraordinary things. I don't know how many of you are aware, b

Agriculture committee  Federal-provincial meetings are an interesting process. You appear and then you leave, and then they discuss after you've left, so we get feedback from a number of sources. I can tell you where we've had support. I believe we've had good, strong support on moving forward from gov

Agriculture committee  As far as Ontario goes, I'm not sure yet of the impact of that. It's not just bringing in foreign workers. We've been able to bring in very good, skilled foreign workers from these countries. Meat plants aren't the easiest places to attract people to. We often sort of joke that w

Agriculture committee  It gets down to a market power question. We analyzed this a number of years ago. It changes if we have access to a large number of U.S. plants bidding, because then the market power is quite different from when they don't. Captive supply is one of those things where there are g

Agriculture committee  We have certainly increased capacity, so from that point of view they were successful. Early on, back to 2006, we raised concerns about the competitive burden on Canadian packers, whether it was the enhanced feed ban or other issues that would put them at a competitive disadvan

Agriculture committee  Yes, long term.

Agriculture committee  Yes, we do. We see growth in beef demand, and we believe if we are able to address competitiveness issues, we will remain one of the largest exporters of beef in the world. But it will be built around our ability to produce and sell beef, not just in Canada but around the world.

Agriculture committee  Competitiveness is never simply one or the other. It's a whole range of things you have to do. We have to create an environment where we attract the right investment as well. I take a look at what we are doing in terms of research and having access to new technologies, and we'r

Agriculture committee  Yes, absolutely, the more we can do on harmonization with the U.S. and reducing those transactional costs.... Our prices are hinged directly to U.S. prices. Every time you add a transaction cost or a different cost, it costs the Canadian cattle and pork industries, but in this ca

Agriculture committee  I've got a person who sort of concentrates on doing that. We could produce some information on the differences in standards.

Agriculture committee  Yes, absolutely. In fact, I was one of the people who helped create the Canada Beef Export Federation in 1989, to diversify. It's been a constant effort. That said, market forces still make the U.S. important, but these other markets are where you can add tremendous value as well

Agriculture committee  Yes, we'd agree with that. As I mentioned, there are some regulatory issues, and we have a bit of breathing room that our dollar has given us. We'd better take full advantage of that as we speak.

Agriculture committee  We've always been a proponent of age verification. The only issue was whether it should be mandatory or whether we should try to encourage an environment for doing it and make sure the systems are ready for it.

Agriculture committee  Yes, we are a proponent of age verification. And in regard to our beef advantage here, that's one of the conditions of being part of it, that producers will. We believe that Japan is ready to move to 30 months. In terms of Korea, we are recommending to take Korea to the WTO. We

Agriculture committee  Absolutely, the more you can address it through good, effective negotiation and good relations.... The best dispute is one you prevent, and the next best is the one you can resolve quickly.