Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I fully agree with Mr. Easter's comments, and in fact we've been asking the government why they aren't putting money into these programs for a number of years now.
We always seem to be, again, the good guy in Canada. We know that some of the other countries that are at the table, or will be at the table, negotiating the next round of the WTO are doing things right now, putting moneys into grain programs to prepare themselves for whatever the eventuality is of the next WTO agreement, but here in Canada we just sit pat and we don't do anything. We wait until the hurt is already done.
The Canadian quality milk program is a good example. The Canadian dairy farmers are putting a lot of money into an on-farm food safety program to make sure that we have a safe, wholesome product to supply to our consumers, and yet we as farmers are footing the bill for that entire program. We've been asking for assistance for that program, but there just seems to be no money available.
That's just one example of something that government could do to help us in that regard.