Thank you for that question.
Farmers are feeling particularly under pressure, and have been for some time. Monsieur Roy--or perhaps it was Alex--raised the issue of transparency. We're being confronted with transparency, accountability, competition, and deregulation constantly. Elevation tariffs and rail freight rates have risen drastically. Farmers have had to shoulder that burden--ultimately it comes back to them--while at the same time there are declining prices.
We have an agency like the CWB that brings premiums to us, and is under some threat. The Canadian Grain Commission has a mandate to act in the interests of producers, and that mandate is under some threat. So producers are under extreme pressure. We're worried that the economic wisdom of today, which we think is extremely illogical, is putting the idea in the minds of legislators and the public that there are no alternatives, that deregulation and slavish adherence to free market economics is the answer and there is no other option.
But these mechanisms were put in place to alleviate the ill effects of those without any kind of market power at the bottom end--to give them a living wage, a decent return. They're as valuable today as they ever were.