Agriculture committee In terms of programming, the...[Technical difficulty--Editor]...program has been cut back a bit since the last go-around. The timing couldn't be worse, I guess, if you're a producer who's facing this exact situation. That program may have put some money in. I'm not saying the changes were all bad, but at the same time, it won't be the same level of compensation coming through there.
February 10th, 2014Committee meeting
Stuart Person
Agriculture committee A lot of producers that are going to significant...[Technical difficulty]. But you know what, Mr. Hoback? The situation right now is that if you haven't contracted grain you won't be able to ship it until some time after harvest. This is what we're being told from the line companies at this point.
February 10th, 2014Committee meeting
Stuart Person
Agriculture committee The AgriInvest account would be a nice fund to dip into if you needed it. The problem is that with the system we're in right now, they just haven't been around long enough to accumulate to anything significant. It's too bad we don't have a bit of a higher cap on those. Right now we're capped at about $15,000 per farm.
February 10th, 2014Committee meeting
Stuart Person
Agriculture committee I do not think bringing the Wheat Board back would do any good, and it's an unrelated issue. Last year was the first year without the Wheat Board and we moved our grain just fine. It is a logistics issue. It's between the railroads and the line companies. At this point it's looking as if the railroads are the guilty party.
February 10th, 2014Committee meeting
Stuart Person
Agriculture committee Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, honourable members of the committee, special guests, and fellow witnesses. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today on behalf of our MNP agri-teams, located in more than 40 offices across Canada, serving in excess of 7,000 grain producers and farm families.
February 10th, 2014Committee meeting
Stuart Person
Agriculture committee To speak more in terms of farm profitability, the average costs of production have risen to over $300 per acre in some areas of the prairies. If our farm families were to sell our grain in today's environment, we'd be lucky to average enough revenue to simply break even, and that is after harvesting a bumper crop, as others have mentioned.
February 10th, 2014Committee meeting
Stuart Person
Agriculture committee It's a little choppy on my end. If I am choppy, let me know.
February 10th, 2014Committee meeting
Stuart Person