Industry committee  It would be. For me, it's about getting the people here and setting up an environment where people can be competitive in what they are doing. We have to be able to bring these people here and say to them, “You're going to be able to make a living doing this. This is going to be p

Industry committee  As far as funding for packing houses in the province goes, it depends on whether they're federally or provincially inspected. Most of the ones in the province are provincially inspected. They fall under provincial jurisdiction. I think that's where the issue comes in. It would be

Industry committee  We have had this conversation a lot in Alberta in regard to perking up our rural economy and bringing people back to rural Alberta and bringing small business back. A processing plant definitely is a small business that could bring a lot of people to rural Alberta, and that is de

Industry committee  Our consumers definitely are moving towards a farm-to-plate type of movement. A lot of people like to know where their beef comes from and where it is processed. Right now, we definitely have a bottleneck in our processing capacity. There are two large plants that process 80% o

Industry committee  Yes.

Industry committee  Right now the biggest issue is trying to find people to drive. There have been some changes in the transport regulations in regard to transporting livestock across the country. That's another thing that's not understood about our industry: that there is continual movement of catt

Industry committee  No, this is a problem with the trucking companies. As Dennis said, there is a trucking company in Alberta right now sitting with 40 empty trucks because they cannot find anybody to drive them.

Industry committee  I think the question for me that's difficult to answer is this: What do you consider large enough for public transport? Where we pick up our mail, there are two people who live there, and I drive an hour for groceries. That's where my question comes from. I think there is a rea

Industry committee  It's total Canadian greenhouse gas emissions.

Industry committee  Definitely, we agree that we have to be a part of this conversation, but at the end of the day we have to remember that beef production in Canada represents 2.4% of the total greenhouse gas emissions. Oftentimes we look at that, but we forget.... That's part of the reason why w

Industry committee  Transportation is a nightmare for us right now, whether it's getting our cattle around or whether it's getting feed to cattle. I don't know if everybody remembers the potential rail strike we faced last December. That really scared us. Definitely, transportation is something th

Industry committee  I just wanted to add that when being asked to do this, oftentimes we're put in a defensive position of the things people think we're doing. It's just been very refreshing to come here and be able to explain the good things that we do, the good things our cattle do, and how import

Industry committee  Yes, I would hope so. Any time we have this type of collaboration, that's what we need: We need all the different sectors to come together. Especially for us, in being here, it's about developing some understanding of our business and what we're doing for our part. It's very good

Industry committee  The beef producers of this province are focused on continually improving the sustainability of our industry. That is why we are very happy to be part of this discussion today. We would like it to consider the environment, social responsibility and economic viability. I think Tyl

Industry committee  That's the difficult part for us. There isn't a whole lot of agriculture in the bill, but there's a lot related to forestry. I'm going to say that, right now, we're just trying to make sure we are at the table and able to give our input about how this bill could possibly work for