Agriculture committee  Thank you for the question. As Mr. Webber said in his opening statement, a lot of the time in this industry, the growers don't know who the other creditors are, so it's hard to form a bankruptcy class. What happens is that, a lot of the time, there are businesses that just go bankrupt and walk away.

Agriculture committee  When there is no true bankruptcy or insolvency, it's hard to report stats. I know of three situations where people just walked away, closed down their business and started again. Those did not get accounted for statistically as a bankruptcy. There are a lot more bankruptcies within the sector.

Agriculture committee  The reality is that you're already in a claim position, because you haven't been paid. Then, for the duration of the claim, you have to post a bond for double the value of your claim. If a claim is $500,000, you have to post a million dollars. If it's a million dollars, you have to post two million dollars, which then further takes that cash from your cash flow.

Agriculture committee  I think the reality is that in that position the retailer is the point of sale. They're getting their payment at the cashier. I don't see how that would put them in a position to make a claim on a restaurant, a wholesaler, a job or by any means. There could be certain situations in which a retailer could become a supplier.

Agriculture committee  Absolutely. All produce fruit and vegetable growers across this country, including greenhouse growers, would be included in that legislation.

Agriculture committee  As Mr. Davidson said earlier, we cannot speak on behalf of the United States. To the best of our knowledge, and what we have been told by the United States, it would definitely open the door to reciprocity again.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for the question. I think that's very important. The reality is that the growers are the lowest common denominator on the totem pole. There's been mention made many times over the last couple of years about how a lot of what we do in our business is low margin. As we transact throughout the supply chain, we need to make sure that the next step in the supply chain is also covered.

Agriculture committee  I truly believe that this would help promote and increase our trade, both domestically and abroad. This is a bill that would offer people peace of mind and allow them to sleep at night, knowing that they have access to some sort of money at the end of the day. The reality is that 10% of your payable could keep you living for another day.

Agriculture committee  Absolutely. The reality is that we're talking high-value crops, the necessities of life, the basic fruits and vegetables. Our growers just want peace of mind and assurance that they're going to get some sort of payment at the end of the day.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. One thing we have to realize in today's marketplace is that we continue to consolidate our marketplace. Our receivables and our sales to specific customers get larger and larger. When I talk about $100,000, that was in 2014. That claim in today's environment would be well over a million dollars.

Agriculture committee  I'm not sure we have that specific number here today. We can get it for this committee. Just from looking around in our industry, I would say that most of the packers, marketers and grower-packers would export some sort of volume to the United States.

Agriculture committee  I think we have to flip the coin here, and we have to look at the United States. Fortunately, there's still some access, whether we call that access or not, to the United States PACA system, but we have to look at whether we are actually looked at as a potential market for U.S. shippers.

Agriculture committee  Good evening. As Rebecca said, my name is Quinton Woods. I am Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada's trade and marketing working group chair, and the sales manager of a root vegetable operation at Gwillimdale Farms. Gwillimdale is a premier grower, packer and shipper of root vegetables, located on the northern tip of the Holland Marsh.