Agriculture committee  It's my pleasure.

Agriculture committee  No, I don't see any difference. The approach they use of course is to use the trust in the context of their federal system. A difference between U.S. law and our law is that their Congress has much more power than our Parliament to invade a state law. We're much more strict with

Agriculture committee  Again, I must apologize; as a technical lawyer, I'm really not competent to deal with what is really a political issue. But let me say this. If there is a solution that will satisfy the Americans, in my opinion it will have to be one that follows this approach. In other words, ul

Agriculture committee  Yes, I'm sorry, you're quite right; I should have made that qualification for sure. Yes.

Agriculture committee  If the buyer is an American buyer, then U.S. law applies. The Canadian supplier would get whatever protection that law provides. We hope, then, that if this act were passed, the USDA would declare that the U.S. system would protect that Canadian seller. Now, if it's the other wa

Agriculture committee  You will have to forgive me by noting that I approach this from a technical legal point of view. In other words, I don't deal with the economics in terms of the volumes of claims. However, let me answer by saying this. Under this system, whatever the volume, it doesn't matter wh

Agriculture committee  Yes, well, insolvency—

Agriculture committee  I'm sorry, I missed your question.

Agriculture committee  It is my understanding that they do, yes.

Agriculture committee  I have no doubt about that. The Supreme Court has been very clear over the years that once a debtor becomes insolvent, this falls within the provisions of the Constitution Act that give jurisdiction over insolvency to the federal Parliament. I have no doubt whatsoever of its cons

Agriculture committee  I wouldn't describe it as a guarantee. The way it would operate is simply this. When the buyer acquires product from the seller, and then resells it—or maybe doesn't resell it, but we know this is perishable goods, so it will be resold—and receives something in return, which coul

Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  I didn't research that particular point, although you may recall that Mr. Webber testified last week that his inquiries had led to the conclusion that the answer was, no, there was no significant effect on the availability of credit. But I'm sorry, that's not an issue on which I

Agriculture committee  No, not me personally.

Agriculture committee  This feature was recommended to me by people in the industry. They took the view that if you're going to grant credit for a much longer period of time, then the question of protecting you and ensuring you are covered becomes quite a bit more complex. There had to be some limit. T