Agriculture committee  Programs to support innovation are certainly always appreciated by agricultural producers. They have always embraced new technologies and are always at the forefront of lowering costs and reducing agriculture's environmental footprint. We know that agriculture emits greenhouse ga

Agriculture committee  As I mentioned earlier, Mr. Kaastra and I were in France last week. Right now, on the European continent, whether in France or other European countries, many plants have shut down due to shortages and the cost of energy. This makes it very difficult to obtain supplies from other

Agriculture committee  I said we wanted the tariffs we had to pay last spring to access fertilizer, which was purchased and ordered in October and November 2021, to be eliminated. We have had to do a lot of legwork to secure the supply of fertilizer for our producers. As a farmer-owned cooperative, we

Agriculture committee  That's right.

Agriculture committee  Mr. Lehoux, I would answer by saying that it is not up to us to make suggestions as to the way the $34.1 million could be used. I think that that is rather your remit. We are asking, however, that the monies collected be paid back to producers. I will now complete the answer I g

Agriculture committee  Mr. Drouin, what you have to know is that a 100% price increase, coupled with the 35% tariff, amounts to a huge increase to the fertilizer bill. Unfortunately, Eastern Canadian producers are the ones currently footing the bill. As I stated earlier, sourcing supplies for the 202

Agriculture committee  Could I ask you to answer, Mr. Kaastra?

Agriculture committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. Lehoux. Given that it is of a rather technical nature, I will ask Mr. Kaastra to answer.

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chair, vice-chairs, ladies and gentlemen of the committee, good afternoon. Mr. Casper Kaastra, chief executive officer of our Sollio Agriculture Division, and myself, Ghislain Gervais, president of Sollio Cooperative Group, thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak to

Agriculture committee  Producers need to be confident that the government will adequately support them through major fluctuations in fertilizer costs. Otherwise, producers will change their seeding plans and cut their fertilizer applications, which will reduce yields and hurt both domestic production a

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. Sollio Cooperative Group has facilities in nine of the 10 Canadian provinces. So we have a presence practically from coast to coast. The sector we are most concerned about right now, because it is the most affected, is meat processing, and I am thinki

Finance committee  I am not aware of that discussion. However, there are additional impacts, that is for sure, and we expect to receive support in terms of absorbing some of the costs of the crisis. We can document them, we can provide figures, no problem. A crisis like COVID-19 is an extraordinary

Finance committee  I am sorry, I did not understand the question.

Finance committee  These are the costs of implementing all social distancing measures, purchasing plexiglass and buying visors and masks. They do not include costs related to the loss of productivity due to the slowdown of the chains. These are only the implementation costs.

Finance committee  In Olymel's case, the costs amount to $20 million. For Exceldor, which you probably know, the costs are about $15 million, and for Agropur, they are between $15 million and $20 million. The impact on processors of implementing these measures is enormous. It is ironic, because we