Yes, in Nova Scotia we're very much in favour of companion programs. We think that's the only way to diversify a national program. I think it's fair to say that over the last five or ten years, creating national programs and looking at trade has so far not been beneficial to the farm industry.
I think we have to look at what the effects are of doing a national program. Bureaucrats or politicians don't really look at that. They can create a program, but they don't know what the program will do two years after that. So when you design a program, it's very important to look at what you foresee in terms of the effects of the program. Is it going to kill somebody? Is it going to make somebody survive? It's very crucial to look at that.
Concerning environmental and public good, I think it's past time that in this country we made the public pay, or found a way. The public pays for things like bottle exchanges. We make laws for every other thing, and they pay for them, so why can't we put agriculture in that bracket? We're just too shy, or we don't we have enough voice, to say what agriculture needs in this country? There's a problem there.
With regard to biofuels—I'll try to make this short—I think this is another issue that the U.S. started, or maybe it was started overseas. If this Canadian government doesn't see the effect of pushing...and I'm not saying biofuel is not good. What I'm saying is that there is going to be a huge effect from supporting a biofuel industry in Canada.
We have a huge livestock industry. We don't say one is better than the other. But if one is going to benefit the environment or whatever, if it's all for the benefit of the environment, we should take some of those benefit dollars and put them into the livestock industry. We need to have food here. If we don't take care of our food supply, there is going to be a problem.