Agriculture committee  Certainly. I think they are probably on our website, in fact.

Agriculture committee  Any measure that would be an unreasonable cost to our industry, like any industry, would be difficult for industry and would affect our competitiveness.

Agriculture committee  I'd have to look at the level of the tax. We'd have to do that analysis to compare it against other regimes.

Agriculture committee  I think any system that put an undue cost on our industry and was unrealistic in terms of our ability to produce reductions would be a detriment to our industry.

Agriculture committee  I don't agree with your premise at all, Mr. Miller. Our member companies operate in a free market, and like everyone in the market, their job for their shareholders is to do the best they can to run profitable businesses, just as farmers do. I would say that if you looked at the farm income for crop producers, setting aside livestock, which has had some tough years, even going forward, the net farm income for crop producers in Canada has gone up dramatically in the last few years, and frankly, a large part of that increase in their profitability has been due to the use of fertilizer products.

Agriculture committee  A number of different regimes for reducing greenhouse gas have been discussed in Canada and throughout the world. Liberal and Conservative governments were looking at an emissions intensity system, and that's where we were at in terms of the proposed regulation in “Turning the Corner”.

Agriculture committee  I must say we haven't really looked very closely at various models for carbon taxes that are out there. I haven't really looked at what the most recent Liberal proposals would be. Taxes are redistribution systems as well, and the Government of Canada's income tax is redistribution, so we've spent our time closely analyzing the policies that have been put forward by the government because those are the ones that are imperative to it.

Agriculture committee  As you know, we've been in discussions with the government on an intense basis for many years now. We've talked about special reduced targets for fertilizer and exemptions for things like the process emissions. We've also suggested innovative ways in which we might be able to secure credits, such as providing research for N2O reductions on farms, and things like that.

Agriculture committee  To your point about the right rate, you wouldn't reduce your fertilizer application in all circumstances if you're following that system. There are parts of Saskatchewan, and other provinces as well, where farmers are not applying sufficient fertilizer to meet the needs of the crop.

Agriculture committee  Ultimately, there isn't a no-cost way to reduce greenhouse gases, so an economic burden will have to be borne. Our industry supports reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. We have been undertaking a lot of efforts over the years to increase our energy efficiency because of the high cost of natural gas in the past.

Agriculture committee  There are ups and downs in fertilizer markets. I haven't seen the March 13 study you were referring to, but over a number of years Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has done an annual report on Canada-U.S. price differentials on fertilizers. And the conclusion in that report has traditionally been that there are no significant differences between the price of fertilizer in Canada and the United States.

Agriculture committee  Canadian farmers have always used natural or organic fertilizer. The foundation of those products is manure. Nothing has changed. There aren't any major new sources of so-called organic fertilizers. The truth is, though, that there is simply not enough organic material to support the level of industrial agriculture that we have in Canada.

Agriculture committee  I would say that our industry is doing very well globally. We are probably one of the world's more competitive fertilizer industries in the world. We're number one in potash, for example. I think that in the past, taxation has been a major issue limiting growth of the industry.

Agriculture committee  One of our industry's long-term concerns has been the lack of new soil scientists coming into the academic community. There has been a decline in the number of PhD soil scientists available to do research on issues like reducing on-farm N2O. Much of our industry's focus on research has been on providing science to farmers.

Agriculture committee  The fertilizer industry is highly dependent on natural gas. It's a high-cost input. The price has moderated recently. There is a very effective market mechanism for setting prices of fertilizer. It's a global price. Prices are not established in Canada; they reflect global trends in pricing.