International Trade committee  It's laughable from an Ontario perspective. For the better part of my life, high value land traded at $3,000 an acre. Currently, we have had confirmed rumour—and take that with a P.E.I. grain of salt—that land prices are around $5,000 an acre, which is a massive increase.

International Trade committee  Yes, and you pencil that out on potato production and the cost of farming here on P.E.I., as Ron alluded to, the high costs that we face. We have high input costs and high costs to get product to market. When you pencil it out, you have to qualify what it means to be profitable on a farm if you're paying $5,000 or in excess of $5,000 an acre.

International Trade committee  Yes. Coming from a potato-producing area and farm, I'd have to say that with plant breeding and genetics as they are, and with improved conservation and everything else that we do on our farms—improved agronomy, site specific, everything—generally we are seeing yields not decline.

International Trade committee  I want to speak to that point with regard to high land prices. I can tell you that here in our province we're going through a municipalization and amalgamation exercise, and we're developing a land use policy. As we see these rising prices for agricultural land, it makes it very difficult to pencil out for our primary producer.

International Trade committee  I'll start, and Robert can finish until Mark cuts us off. I know in my lifetime as an adult working on our farm, I've seen us go through the process of PVY N. I've also seen wart, and we also had the twist of the needles in the last couple of years. Each of these issues creates an opportunity for our largest trade partner to deem our products a risk to their industry, so they close the border to us.

International Trade committee  Our input has been at the Canadian federation level. In terms of direct contribution from the P.E.I. federation to the federal government, this is our first.

International Trade committee  On the export side, the real gain for Canada is the equal footing in the Japanese markets we will have with our competitors from the U.S., Australia, and Mexico. However, these gains only come about if Canada is a signatory to the TPP, as Australia already has a free trade agreement with Japan.

International Trade committee  Good morning. My name is Mary Robinson, and I am a member of the sixth generation of my family to farm here on Prince Edward Island. We farm potatoes, soybeans, grain, and hay. I'm also currently the president of the P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture. With me today is Robert Godfrey, our executive director.