I wanted to make sure the section on marketing choice was read into the record from the last time. I assume it has been, so we have that for the amendment.
There was a second issue that we had. Mr. Easter quotes Dr. Fulton, but he doesn't give a balance here. There is another expert who has been quoted, and that's Dr. Rolf Penner, so I would like to move a second amendment. In a commentary published last summer, “Dual Market Denial”, on July 26, 2006, Penner wrote, “The odds of successfully transitioning the CWB into an open market setting are extremely high.” I would like to have that added as an amendment to the paragraph that begins, “In November 2006”.
Third, we have a comment that needs to be made. I think there has been some misinformation left about the possibility of the board operating successfully with marketing choice. I just need to point out that in 1993 farmers were free to market their barley directly to the U.S. or through the Canadian Wheat Board for 40 days. I understand that there was more barley marketed in those 40 days than had been marketed in any year prior to that, and the board was able to make the adjustment. It did that and moved into that marketing choice environment very successfully.
Fourth, I want to point out to the committee, as I did before, that this is an incredible waste of our time. The ballots have already gone out. Farmers have received them and are actually mailing them back already. It's far too late for this motion to come forward now, and it's inappropriate. I don't assume that the Liberals are going to vote against it, but I would ask my colleagues in the Bloc and the NDP to consider the fact that this is irrelevant and that we really need to vote against it.
I want to add a third amendment, and that is that we take out the recommendations and replace them with: “The committee recommends the following: That the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food be commended for a balanced plebiscite question.”