Agriculture committee  Sure. Just to reinforce the comments already made by our vice-chair Shane Stokke, we support the provision currently in the act with respect to grain grading and the equity that it creates between the two countries. We think it gives Canada an opportunity to demonstrate that we

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Jeff. Now, for the good news. We believe there are easily achievable solutions to help farmers and to protect the Canadian economy. We have very specific, very actionable requests for you today. First, as a sector, we are asking for two critical changes to the AgriS

Agriculture committee  Yes. We've been calling for some federal leadership. We know very clearly that it is within the agriculture minister's mandate to address AgriStability in particular. I want to build on a point, if I may, that Mr. Perron made. I'm not an expert on supply management, but I thin

Agriculture committee  It's both, in that we're seeking an increase from the 70% to 85%, and we're seeking removal of the reference margin limit as well. As I said in my remarks, that one is fairly consistent among all sectors across the industry.

Agriculture committee  When we look at it from the perspective of our members, in terms of what we grow and the commodities we represent, the vast majority of what we grow goes overseas, because we have the luxury of growing more than we can consume in this country with respect to grains, pulses and oi

Agriculture committee  Certainly through the AGgrowth Coalition, which Jeff Nielsen, our chair, co-chairs, that's been an ask on the books for just over a year now. Farm circumstances across the country have changed over the last five years. As a result, we really feel the need now to see an increase o

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Andre. Thank you, committee members. I will quote a very recent research paper from Kerri Holland at the University of Calgary's Simpson Centre for Agriculture and Food Innovation. In her report entitled “Canada's Food Security During the COVID-19 Pandemic”, she st

Agriculture committee  I'm going to invite my director Andre Harpe to speak to this as well, in terms of how that has shifted. Certainly from hearing from our members, I know there was an acceptance when the changes were made that the changes at the time were appropriate, in 2013. That acceptance no

Agriculture committee  With respect to the committee's study on business risk management, I think one of the reasons you're hearing consistently from a variety of different associations and different stakeholders and commodities around this one particular ask for AgriStability is that it provides targe

Agriculture committee  You're asking me a more technical question about the program, and I'm going to defer to my expert, Mr. Harpe, who has used the program in the past.

International Trade committee  Sure. I'm Erin Gowriluk, executive director of the Grain Growers of Canada. This is a really important issue and one that the industry has been calling on the federal government, on the Canadian government, to take to the WTO for a couple of reasons. One of the more obvious r

International Trade committee  Thank you. I don't know why we haven't brought it to the WTO. I know the industry has been calling on the Canadian government to do just that—to your point specifically, Mr. Hoback—because we want to see a resolution of this issue, and that has a direct and immediate impact on t

Agriculture committee  Just to add to Mr. Hodson's comments, I think that if there were a form of energy available as an alternative to natural gas or propane, farmers would be all over it. There's a significant cost, as Mr. Hodson indicated, associated with purchasing the natural gas and propane for d

Agriculture committee  Thanks for the question, Mr. MacGregor. With respect to any carbon tax, and in this discussion in particular, it's really about whether the bill is meeting its intended objective, which is to ultimately incentivize practice change. With this tax, we want to encourage, for exampl

Agriculture committee  Sure, I can speak to that. I think with respect to grain prices, certainly they fluctuate. It really depends on the commodity and the market in which you're selling. Certainly some of our growers have faced some significant market access issues, depending on markets around the