Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
First, I would like to thank all of the witnesses for the presentations, which gave an accurate reflection of reality, and the answers they have given us. You can see the desire, the willingness to find solutions to protect all sectors. It is not exactly easy, but I think that is what the country needs.
The part of my riding where I live is the Annapolis Valley. When the BSE hit, you wouldn't think it would have immediately affected that part of the world as hard as it did. But we do have some cow-calf operators. We do have a lot of mixed farmers and beef is part of their income. Also, we have our supply-managed sector in the dairy industry. The revenue from cull cows is important as part of the mix at the end of the year. That evaporated overnight and created some great difficulties.
We have hog producers. We have some SM5 producers. We have mink producers, producers of grains and oilseeds, vegetables, and fruit trees. All of them have cyclical difficulties, but the one thing that's very disconcerting is that the trend line has not been good, in every sector except the supply-managed sector. The supply-managed sector has maintained and sustained those communities for a long time. What's more important, it's one of the only sectors--the mink industry perhaps being the other one--where there is confidence in the future, where people are still willing to make investments and young people remain in those communities because of stability that they foresee in that sector. So losing it is absolutely something that cannot be considered.
We saw some vegetable and fruit juice processors leave our area because of imports we're getting out of China. Concentrates are coming out of there at prices we can't compete with. So it's important for us, in that sense, to maintain that stability in the agriculture field. It's also important for consumers, because the price we get comes out of supply management.
The case has been well made for open access. I don't think there's a soul in this country who would not agree with that. Farmers in my area always talk about the level playing field, that if we have a level playing field internationally, Canadians can compete effectively. So we have what sometimes is portrayed as an opposing view, and we get those questions. I've heard some tell us this morning that because of our position on supply management--which I certainly would support and hope we maintain--we are isolated. Others are telling us that we aren't.
I certainly hope that we can achieve a balanced position. In your view, is it achievable that Canada maintain, for the next two generations, supply management in this country and improve our access to international markets, therefore stabilizing agriculture from one coast to the other?