Thank you.
I know some of the rhetoric going around the House. We all know what goes on in the House, but we do feel that we campaigned very openly on moving to marketing choice for western Canadian grain farmers. It was front and centre in our brochures. It was one of our major promises, along with changing the inventory evaluation system for the margin-based program. There it is. We've been up front about it during the campaign, and we've been up front about it since.
The task force report recommended four stages of transition to move from the marketing monopoly to a fully farmer-owned Canadian Wheat Board. They suggested that the first action should be legislation. I'm convinced, and I've been convinced by farmers and others, that the first step should be consultation. This is not inconsistent with their first recommendation. Their first recommendation is to consider barley and whether barley should be under the exclusive marketing control of the Canadian Wheat Board. That is their first recommendation. They say just go ahead and move legislatively.
I think--and our government is convinced--that the first step should be this consultation through the plebiscite. I've always said I'm not ruling it in or out. I wanted to wait for the task force report. It is interesting that their first recommendation is on the barley. Every survey or poll that I've seen has convinced me that farmers are ready to make a decision on barley. That's all this plebiscite will be about. It won't be about whether someone agrees with the task force report, and it won't be about wheat. This is going to be about barley and only barley.