Agriculture committee  As you know, food processing plants are often located close the supply source. That is why there are lot of plants in the region. They are often close to the farms that supply the food. Workers would have to be bussed to the region from Montreal to meet daily labour needs. Effor

Agriculture committee  Yes, the industry is ready to some extent. Here too we need support to be more productive. We have to make sure we have strategic information that will enable us to export to new markets and to innovate. That is the key to exports. We really need to be part of the federal govern

Agriculture committee  In terms of funding?

Agriculture committee  What we've been saying is that we should get as much funding in percentage as our representation to the GDP. On innovation, for example, there's a huge fund. If we represent 5% of GDP, we should get at least 5% of any investment going toward food processing or the manufacturing s

Agriculture committee  That depends; in the Netherlands, for example, it's a huge amount of their budget, as it is in Switzerland and....

Agriculture committee  I believe that every department involved in food processing—agriculture, health, industry, transport—should have an open door for our business and not work in a silo. We need to have the departments involved in food processing talking to each other, and if possible have a committ

Agriculture committee  As mentioned earlier, in order to break into new markets, we have to be competitive. The only way of doing that is by helping our industry be competitive, remain a leader in food safety, be innovative and identify new market needs. We have to remember that we are the most impor

Agriculture committee  For sure.

Agriculture committee  First of all, I would recommend improving access to information. We currently have opportunities with the European Union. These will of course crystallize once the agreement is finalized. The Institut du Québec has in fact published a study confirming that the agri-food sector p

Agriculture committee  I would just add that in the temporary foreign worker program, as you probably know, all manufacturing sectors were excluded. Right now we do have in the fields some workers on the production side but they cannot work on the food processor side, and they work hand in hand, so whe

Agriculture committee  With regard to agriculture and agrifood, as you probably know, we have lots of very good jobs in the food processors industry. In some provinces, you have initiatives right now to promote the agriculture and agrifood sectors, but we do need to have a Canadian strategy on valoriza

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for inviting us to appear today. My name is Sylvie Cloutier. I am the CEO of the Quebec Food Processors Council and the chair of the Canadian Council of Food Processors. I am here today with François Couture, a senior adviser and