Agriculture committee  I'd like to answer the question of whether the money gets to me as a farmer. I'm going to talk on the hog side. I mentioned the fact that on the grain side and the beef side, it did come to me. On the hog side, the CAIS program definitely has assisted us, and I think that's good.

Agriculture committee  I'm not going to discuss the eco tax anymore, but I think we need to take a look at it and address it properly. You put an idea out there; it's very easy for people to say it's no good, or it's another tax. We need to look at how to promote it. I've talked with individuals about it, and when you compare an eco tax to the tire tax, most people are not really opposed to it.

Agriculture committee  I have a quick response on the WTO for the Honourable Mr. Easter. Canada is part of the Cairns Group, which advocates trade access around the world. For those of us who like to trade, the frustration is that it seems every time the Cairns Group issues a communiqué, Canada puts a little asterisk beside its name for not agreeing with the communiqué.

Agriculture committee  There's no question that this is a dilemma and a difficulty we have in this country. The view of Alberta Pork or Canadian Pork is not that we're against supply management at all. It's fine if groups want to remain small and not add to the bigger picture of exporting out of this country.

Agriculture committee  On that, in its attempt to help small farmers, I think government policy unfortunately has actually harmed them. I know I sound like a broken record, but the regulatory things that government keeps putting in place harm small farmers much more than they do the larger farmers. We therefore just keep becoming larger in order to become efficient and to cover those costs.

Agriculture committee  It's an interesting comment that you're not a farmer if you don't produce your own grain. That is a topic that I think would create some major discussion. Our industry, and certainly the beef feeding industry, has survived because of specialization and by doing a job on specialization.

Agriculture committee  To continue on with Bill's comments, and obviously with due respect, we had presented quite a number of solutions, and I certainly had mentioned the biogas solution. I don't want to rain on the parade of the grain farmers here either in terms of bioenergy. That's okay. That policy is in place, and it's going to stay.

Agriculture committee  That's a perfect lead-in—

Agriculture committee  Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to jump the queue.

Agriculture committee  Again, there were a lot of good comments there. I'd like to address them in several ways. The competitiveness issue is really a major one. That's where it's government's responsibility to try to remove some of the regulatory barriers we have. It isn't only true in the hog industry, it's true in all parts of agriculture.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. I'd also like to add my welcome to the committee and honourable members coming to Alberta to listen to us. We really appreciate the opportunity to share some of our views from Alberta and across Canada with you. I do think that the consultative process is very important.