Human Resources committee  Thank you. My name is Dimitri Fraeys and I am the vice-president of innovation and economic affairs at the Conseil de la transformation alimentaire du Québec, the CTAQ. I am accompanied by my colleague, Ms. Isabelle Leblond, who is a corporate director at Olymel. The CTAQ is th

Human Resources committee  Thank you. Yes, we are well supported by the Minister of Agriculture and by Ms. Qualtrough. We had a meeting with her last week, and she was very open and responsive. However, I must say that things have not necessarily changed for the time being. We're concerned with process

Human Resources committee  In fact, as far as plants are concerned, the consequence is the rationalization of the product line. There are products that are no longer processed, because that requires more labour. A little later, Ms. Leblond will explain what is happening in terms of slaughter. In some p

Agriculture committee  As we said earlier, labour is a serious problem. In our area, 15% to 20% of jobs are vacant because of a labour shortage. That means we have to bring in temporary foreign workers to fill these jobs. That ends up costing an additional $5 an hour. The problem with bringing in temp

Agriculture committee  As soon as interest rates drop, pressure will ease off. As I was saying earlier, stocks are large and prices are increasing. When costs rise, demand for financial instruments automatically increases. What we are proposing would help businesses get through the next few months, wh

Agriculture committee  Yes, that's right. The National Supply Chain Task Force, which comes under the aegis of Transport Canada, released its report in October, in which it made a number of recommendations, the most pressing of which was to use digital technology to improve logistics and transportation

Agriculture committee  Yes, we'd like to see more substantial investments in the budget to be able to improve logistics and transportation in Canada.

Agriculture committee  Doing away with the LMIAs Is an excellent idea. They may be worthwhile for new workers, but as I was saying, there are some foreign workers who've been coming here for 10 or 15 years. The LMIAs had initially been introduced to make sure that no Canadian workers were available bef

Agriculture committee  Yes, we've seen this problem primarily for permit renewals. The business may have done all the work, but the worker, once the permit has been renewed, may decide to work for another employer. This is obviously unfair to the company that made all the arrangements.