Thank you for the question.
I will commence by saying I am familiar with this particular situation in northwestern Ontario. I wasn't aware of the drought conditions, but it certainly would be a good indicator as to the driver for why the demand for hay has shifted to south of the border and into Minnesota.
The pest of concern that we are talking about with this particular shipment is the cereal leaf beetle. Although the cereal leaf beetle is established throughout several parts of Canada, it is not in northwestern Ontario, nor is it widely established on the Prairies, where it would be the most serious pest. So that is the pest of concern, and that's why we have the program in place.
In Minnesota, you are correct that the cereal leaf beetle is not in the northern parts of the state from where this particular farmer wants to source his hay, but it is in the southern part of the state. What we are looking for, then, would be the assurance that it does in fact meet our requirement of either freedom from cereal leaf beetle or being grown in an area free from cereal leaf beetle. The mechanism by which we do that and recognize that is the phytosanitary certificate.
In the case of the United States, it's quite often state agents who will in fact do the inspections and issue the certificates, and I believe that is the case with Minnesota. In that state, they do have a cost recovery program in place, thus triggering the costs.
Another part of your question deals with the length of time it takes for an inspection to take place. Given all of that, I do hear exactly what you're saying. I have asked my staff—this week even—to take advantage of a meeting they're at with their USDA colleagues and to discuss this with the USDA office and ask them to work with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to see if there might be an alternate way of providing that phytosanitary certificate without having to do that travel each time and adding on those additional costs. So I've already triggered that to take place, in order to see if we can expedite it and to make it in a more prudent efficient manner. Hopefully some of these cost savings could then be passed on.