My thanks to all three of you ministers for coming.
The governments of Saskatchewan and Manitoba certainly seemed to outline how far this government would go. I don't think there's any question that this Prime Minister has almost a visceral dislike for the monopoly power of the Canadian Wheat Board, which does empower primary producers. Everything we've seen to date shows that he will go to the limit of illegality to get rid of it. We've seen the stacked task force. We've seen a voters list being changed in the middle of an election. You folks outlined a number of those points.
I think the key question is why the opponents of the Canadian Wheat Board are so afraid to allow farmers a vote on whether or not they support the marketing institution in terms of single-desk selling. That's the key question. Why are opponents of the Canadian Wheat Board so afraid to allow farmers to have a voice on this issue through a democratic vote, as dictated under the Canadian Wheat Board Act? That's question one, Mr. Chair.
Moving to Minister Horner's statements, there's a central question. I've listened to Mr. Horner before in other venues and we've had our set-tos. We've heard a lot of hypotheticals—and that's what we continually hear from those who want to take away single-desk selling: hypotheticals—and that their evidence confirms. Well, where is the evidence of these people who oppose the board?
There's a lot of evidence on the side of the benefits. We've heard a lot about Australia and the changes there. Even in your own study, Minister Horner, JRG Consulting must have been trying to come up with the answers you wanted, but even they confirm this: “The majority of growers opposed, and continue to oppose, further change in wheat and barley marketing arrangements, implying a continuation of support for the single desk concept.” That's in Australia.
The central questions that were not designed to be answered by this study remain. That is, what are the benefits of single-desk premiums arising from the current Canadian system? The dilemma is this. We know what the losses will be, and we have studies confirming them, but we don't know what the benefits will be if we undermine single-desk selling.
I wonder if the ministers would answer those questions.