International Trade committee  That's definitely part of the aquaculture business proposition. Just so you know, 30% of our global sales are non-aquaculture. That's a growing segment of our total business. But in terms of your question, yes, that is one of the major benefits of aquaculture. It takes stress off

International Trade committee  To use salmon as an example, there hasn't been a commercial Atlantic salmon fishery since the early 1970s. Salmon aquaculture actually only started in earnest in the 1990s. It fills a void that exists in the market. There's also a wild salmon fishery, of course, on the west coast

International Trade committee  Our sales into China are right to things like supermarket chains and distributors for restaurants. The product literally comes out of the ocean here, is processed here in New Brunswick, and is sold fresh into China. We're not part of the reprocessing where we're sending it to Chi

International Trade committee  It's being processed here in Blacks Harbour. All of it is certified in Blacks Harbour and then it gets put on a truck and goes to Montreal. It's flown to Doha and then it goes from Doha into the Chinese market.

International Trade committee  In that plant, we have very little access to foreign workers. It's almost exclusively domestic. That plant needs more workers. We have a very hard time finding labour. We could put through a lot more business in our plant in St. George if we had greater access to labour and forei

International Trade committee  I can't speak for the industry overall. I can only speak for our company's experience. I think what you're getting at is there are really different levels in the market. When you compete at the higher end of the scale, it's much different from when you compete at the lower-quali

International Trade committee  That has never been raised with me, so I'm not sure how much of an impact that would have. I think it would be minimal. Again, I haven't been part of any internal discussions as they relate to that, so I would say the impact would be negligible.

International Trade committee  No. To be perfectly blunt, we don't rely on trade deals in order to expand our business globally. We're already out in these countries. The level playing field aspect of trade deals is always helpful to us, but there would not be any job losses if this were not ratified.

International Trade committee  They would be the two countries that I mentioned in my submission. Japan is arguably the largest seafood market in the world. Obviously, easier access to that market is going to be helpful. We actually have a sales office in Japan. Then there are other growing markets, such as Vi

International Trade committee  You're absolutely right. You always have to start somewhere. I'll use an example outside of the TPP simply to illustrate what you're talking about. We sold, from New Brunswick.... We had zero sales into China as of two years ago, and having nothing to do with a trade deal, today

International Trade committee  Today, we have more than 1,500 employees in Atlantic Canada, so the majority of Canadian jobs would be Atlantic Canadian jobs. There would be a few more outside of that in the rest of Canada. I wouldn't be able to put a number to job creation as it relates to the TPP. We don't r

International Trade committee  I'm not aware that we did take advantage of that. It's possible that somebody from our company may have, but I don't believe so.

International Trade committee  Good morning. On behalf of Cooke Aquaculture and our affiliated businesses, both the aquaculture and fisheries sectors, I thank you for the invitation to appear before the committee today. We are headquartered on the east coast of Canada in Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick, which