My answer is essentially the same as the one given by Mr. Friesen, but I would add that we have just gone through a period where we had no agricultural policy in Canada, but rather an agribusiness policy. We thought that if the processes were profitable, they would pass on revenues to the producers and that would in turn secure their net income. As my colleagues to my right and left both said, with the concentration phenomenon that occurred, that did not happen, to the point where we found ourselves in a situation where processors experienced upheavals with their own profitability. So they told the producers that they would no longer take their animals or that they would be shutting down their plants, to the point where we wind up with nothing. In order to reverse this trend, Agriculture Canada will have to adopt an agricultural policy to encourage a business environment providing producers with net income based on the market, or adopt a complementary policy. I think that we need to be focused on agriculture.
On March 29th, 2007. See this statement in context.