We may get time to come back to that, but I do have to get the potash question in. Maybe we can come to back to that later.
Mr. Chair, as you know, one of the areas that we're really hearing a lot about is the price of potash and the dominance of three companies in the world clearly managing supply to meet demand--clearly managing supply to meet demand.
In a conference call, Bill Doyle, who is president and CEO of Potash Corporation, in the first quarter of 2009.... He basically admitted they're managing supply to meet demand. He said, and I quote:
With weaker market conditions, we have the ability to exercise the defensive part of our strategy and match potash production to demand as necessary. This response to short term changes in potash demand is the same strategy that has supported our success for more than 20 years now.
We had the fertilizer companies before us a year ago, and they were saying that potash prices were high, that there was nothing they could really do until two new mines were brought in, one in Russia and one in Saskatchewan.
Then we had the recession and the commodity price downturn. All of a sudden, they were laying off people at mines in Saskatchewan and elsewhere in order to manage supply--not because they weren't making money. They were making money. Their profits just weren't gross enough. That's the reality of the world.
I want to read into the record just a little bit of a letter from a former minister, Eugene Whelan. He said he was worried about potash:
Research has led me to believe that there is collusion amongst the world Potash producers. These producers have been able to short supply the world market and at the same time receive outlandish unwarranted prices for the product. When the market price is compared to the cost to produce the Potash, there is no comparison. ... I believe that the actual purchase price for a tonne of Potash should be closer to $250. Yet when I spoke with a local fertilizer supplier, I was quoted $1035 a tonne to buy the Potash.
The end result of the actions by the fertilizer companies is that this essential product for food production is outlandishly priced and many farmers cannot afford to buy it. The Potash producers say there is no demand for the product and have laid miners off. Potash production has been cut back.
There is a real impact here. If there is collusion among these companies....
Now, Mr. Doyle is not poorly paid. His salary in 2007 was $324 million, with bonuses. That's a substantial salary. He's the highest-paid CEO in this country by a long shot.
Something's going on here, guys, with the potash companies globally. Is there anything you can recommend to us? Whether you can deal with it at the Competition Bureau of Canada, I don't know, but more and more there is collusion globally among the corporate sector, which is either increasing prices to farmers on the input side or decreasing prices to farmers on the output side. This has to stop.
Can you give us some recommendations, or tell us what you can do?