Agriculture committee  I don't think that we should reduce our efforts in terms of food security and safety. Canada has done very well in this regard. Furthermore, when processing is done in Canada, it adds value to the Canadian brands being exported. As for products that may be consumed, including “p

Agriculture committee  Not at all. In this instance, we're not talking about food safety or security, but rather about plant-based products that companies don't even bother to have approved in Canada because the market is too small. Financially speaking, it's not worth it. On the other hand, Canada cou

Agriculture committee  I believe that there could be cooperation. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or the FDA, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, are perfectly capable of working together. They're doing so already. It would mean that the studies would not need to be done over again. There i

Agriculture committee  The program is extremely beneficial to companies like ours and we take advantage of it. Foreign workers come every year for four, five or six months. Some now come for a year. If we succeed in having these workers immigrate and come to work for us, so much the better. They would

Agriculture committee  I'll come back again to workers. It's truly an enormous problem, particularly because we're regional. The food processing industry is often regionally based because the products come from the regions. However, fewer and fewer young people are staying. We're having trouble keeping

Agriculture committee  In our case, and also for smaller processors across Canada, a code of conduct is required. I spoke about this earlier in connection with distribution. You need to understand that Canada is a small and highly concentrated market. There are therefore not all that many options for C

Agriculture committee  We need to offer business training programs and encourage companies to improve the expertise and skills of their workers. It will require programs that are much better aligned with the sector. We have foreign workers at the moment, but they tend to do the work that Canadians no

Agriculture committee  No. I would say that the food sector does not have many huge companies. I heard Ms. Yasmeen speak about it. There are in fact already lots of small businesses in the regions. For them, automation would be very difficult because of their size. There are government programs for au

Agriculture committee  Absolutely.

Agriculture committee  There is a solution. As I said at the beginning, I'm the co-chair of the food processing industry roundtable. We want to establish a workforce committee, which would study all aspects of the question, including education and attracting young people to work in the food sector. It

Agriculture committee  We have no choice. We're going to have to continue to use foreign workers. The 10% limit will have to be removed, as has already happened in certain sectors.

Agriculture committee  Yes. The problem was exacerbated this year by COVID-19, but it was there already. It needs to end and we need to toss out the myth that Canadian businesses hire foreign workers to save money. It's not true. A foreign worker cost us a lot more than a local worker when you take all

Agriculture committee  I don't know that they go with illegal practices, so I don't know if the Competition Bureau would find anything. Anyway, they had this first inquiry and they did not find anything. I think it's just the concentration that is too much. These companies announce publicly what they

Agriculture committee  I think it's a strength that we have these Canadian regulations as long as they're well applied and they protect the safe food we have. I think it helps us internationally.

Agriculture committee  It obviously complicates the negotiation with the unions of growers that we have to negotiate with, whether it's in Quebec, Ontario or Alberta, because every cost increase that we have, that we're experiencing, is pushed back. On top of that, incremental fees are brought into our