Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll try to restrict my comments to that.
Looking at the long run for supply management, the long run is not simply to use article 28, although I would point out that our government's the first government to use article 28 to protect supply management. It was something that was asked for for many years of previous governments and was never used. We have gone further than previous governments. We've put our money where our mouth is. We were pleased to do that. The comments that we got from the Dairy Farmers of Canada, for example, showed that they were very pleased. They made comments about there being no doubt now in producers' minds that this government supports supply management, which is true, and they recognize that.
The longer run, though, does require more than simply an article 28. That's why I've been very pleased with the work of the Dairy industry working group. My hat's off to both the producers and the processors for taking a long-term view in the work they did on that committee. It would be easy for everyone just to hunker down and say “It is the way it is, and everybody just has to live with it”. Instead, they said, “Well, let's look at the long-term viability of the industry and, more than that, let's look at growth opportunities for the industry”.
To get everybody bearing down on that question in the industry, the industry leaders of both the farm community and the processing community, and to talk about these long-term steps that are necessary to restore growth—because there's been retracting in recent years—that's getting the right group of people asking the right questions with a government that is keen to do our part to make sure that we can restore growth.
The longer term is not simply article 28. That isn't the longest term. The longer term includes things like the Dairy industry working group, which started off talking about cheese compositional standards, but has other things on its agenda, and I look forward to its getting to them. I'm hoping it's going to talk about things like yogourt and butter oil, and how to restore growth to the industry. That is the long-term solution.