Agriculture committee  On the labour component, when we order up our our men and ladies from the islands, it used to take a month with Service Canada. We used to put our orders in, and it was done in a month. Now it's six months. We have to organize for six months to get it through Service Canada. Serv

Agriculture committee  I didn't get that. I'm having trouble here.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for asking the question. That's a great question. I believe that in 100 years there will be no agriculture left in Ontario. Statistics Canada did an agriculture census back in 2016. At that time, 175 acres were being taken out of production every day due to development

Agriculture committee  We need better land use policies to save the number one, two, three and four agriculture lands, which a farmer can make a living on; but the five, six, and seven, which he cannot make a living on, maybe that's where we need to put the houses. I know it's a pull-and-shove here. We

Agriculture committee  Yes, thank you for that. The blueberries that don't get picked go down in the ground and they produce the energies and everything. I don't consider that a total waste. It's a waste for people and their energy for sure, but sometimes that's the fertilizer. It's a waste for us and

Agriculture committee  I'm done on that.

Agriculture committee  That is correct. The fruits and vegetables.... We are in an open market in the world. There's no protection for us at all.

Agriculture committee  On that one, obviously, Bill C-280 is with the government at the present time. We would love to see that pass. The reason is that the United States protected us when we took fruits and vegetables and went into the United States. They had their own deemed trust, as it's called, an

Agriculture committee  Okay. Well, in terms of the greenhouse growers, the carbon tax is huge in that industry. We got some protection on it, but it will make us uncompetitive again. We're only doing this in Canada at the moment, I believe, and the United States produce will come in. They will expand.

Agriculture committee  That's a pretty easy one. There's legislation or a policy that has increased the cost to the farmer, and it comes out of his bottom line. When you do that, it reduces his funds to be able to innovate, grow his business and grow the industry. It gets very tough when you have one o

Agriculture committee  Okay. Get farmers back to farming by streamlining government inspection processes. They are complicated and drawn out, especially the temporary worker program integrity audits. There were 11 audits on my farm last year. When I started, there were none. It doesn't help the farmer

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much for the opportunity to present. I represent the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers' Association. Canadian food security in terms of our fresh fruit and vegetables is worryingly low. According to the U.S. Trade, in 2021, over 75% of Canadian fresh vegetables