Agriculture committee  I will never stop trying to do crop rotation. It's just a matter of having to fill one to fill the void. I've done that for the crops I have now. Farmers will never stop innovating, but I would hope that we're allowed to do that and not be forced into having to make changes. That's what part of this is about.

Agriculture committee  I will pass this question on to Erin Gowriluk here.

Agriculture committee  I select “English”, then, and it will interpret for me?

Agriculture committee  Okay. I just did that. My apologies.

Agriculture committee  Sure. If you would like to, go ahead.

Agriculture committee  My only option is propane at this point. I don't have a natural gas option. It's very limited where that option exists on farms. My only option is propane, which can be delivered to my operation. It comes down strictly to economics. Mr. Chair mentioned his boiler. There are a lot of ideas on a small scale, but to get large enough to be economical on a modern grain farm, the cost of any technology is still prohibitive.

Agriculture committee  The way I was looking at it, it's like a negative consequence. One of the things we're cognizant of in agriculture in Canada is crop rotation and its benefits for our soil health, disease prevention and so on. On a personal level, on our farm, I am concerned that down the road, if this cost escalates in the way that it is being forecast and things are left as they are, I may lose the option of having one more crop in my rotation.

Agriculture committee  Sorry, I just want to clarify that. Did you say compensate the producers for the basis change?

Agriculture committee  No, I'm not.

Agriculture committee  Okay.

Agriculture committee  Do we have a strategy? Obviously, most producers over time, yes, try to develop a strategy to the best of their abilities. It's something that is a learned process, and producers work on it every year.

Agriculture committee  No, it would work against us, for sure. Obviously, with the negative consequences I had mentioned earlier, the other part of the supply chain not being exempt for all the fuels, eventually our basis is going to widen because of the extra costs for all of the input suppliers, and those costs are only going to go up as the forecast of the carbon tax increases over the next few years.

Agriculture committee  I apologize. I didn't understand the question. I would have to pass that on to Erin.

Agriculture committee  I obviously don't have the setting right. I'm not getting the interpretation. My apologies. My French is very limited.

Agriculture committee  I've heard about the biomass. As a producer, the concept has been talked about for a long time. At this point, to get it on a farm-type scale that's economical...it just hasn't been shown to be there. Technology is going to change. I can't predict whether this is something that's going to be economically viable on a farm scale five or 10 years down the road.