Agriculture committee  Yes. In western Canada, especially Alberta, B.C., and I believe all of Saskatchewan, we aren't using it now. The interesting thing is the substance itself has never posed health threats or a food safety issue. But we do have one that may come across our border called carbadox, t

Agriculture committee  To my knowledge, mostly in eastern Canada as well, the use of ractopamine was mostly because we were competing with U.S. products. In the last year we've had some trade difficulties, primarily with Russia and the ban of that substance being used in their marketplace. So we've gon

Agriculture committee  It is another good question, and it is unfortunate that we do face that. I guess one of the things that we lack in our country is a good domestic initiative for marketing the pork industry. We have some provincially, in Quebec, Ontario, or even ourselves in Western Canada, in A

Agriculture committee  Yes, there are specific products on the shelf, and some retailers’ products indicate that. Free from the use of hormones would be a program. But to be properly labelled, the labelling would have to also designate that it's like all pigs raised in Canada. None of those marketed pi

Agriculture committee  It probably kicks in at somewhere around an extra 8 million pigs that we would see in our system. Right now we're sitting at about 21 million to 25 million pigs. So that's substantial for us, to be able to increase the size of our herd if we can, even just to sit where we are tod

Agriculture committee  From a producer’s perspective, which I represent, we would have to leave that to the processors, brokers, exporters, and traders who actually sell in those countries, but through Canada Pork International, I know they have been looking at the ability to have access to Europe. A

Agriculture committee  I would echo the same remarks that Mr. Walton has given you just now. On the other side, too, we have some very intelligent members of Parliament, one of whom sits on the committee, with whom I've had many opportunities to speak, and I think the right thing will be done. It is a

Agriculture committee  It might be Mr. Payne.

Agriculture committee  No, sir. At this point, no hormones are used in the pork industry. It's unfortunate that in the retail case, we see the labelling “no hormones”, but it's only to let the customer know there are no hormones. If we read the small print, it says that all pork in Canada is produced w

Agriculture committee  Absolutely, I would. Again, as I said, those plants that have the EU certification would be the first that would be able to make those shipments and movements. Again, our product has so many parts sold into so many different countries that one plant taking up some volume in the n

Agriculture committee  I think through the funding that we've received in the past, and hopefully we'll see in the future from the federal government that has gone to the Canada Pork International, we have been very successful in most of the marketplaces we've tried. We also have a very good relationsh

Agriculture committee  I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman. I'm having a hard time hearing the question.

Agriculture committee  If we'd had those markets open and we had somewhere around 30,000 tonnes available to us—in 2011 we only shipped about 415 tonnes—that difference would have moved that product quite nicely for us. Again, the COOL issue we're facing now also affects live hogs, and it likely wouldn

Agriculture committee  Absolutely. Yes, that would have been quite helpful, I think, any time you can find those extra markets when one market shifts and pushes you out of that marketplace, to have those extra opportunities...to be able to go into the EU with 28 countries. I know we're very optimistic

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much for this opportunity. I certainly do appreciate it. One of the things to bear in mind is that, as mentioned earlier, I'm here representing the Alberta Pork Producers Development Corporation, which is made up of 350 producers in Alberta who also belong to the