Thank you for being here.
I'm going to start out with a statement, and perhaps I can get some comments from some of you later. I'd like to specifically talk a bit about the potato industry.
Mr. Dykstra, you started off your presentation on a sort of pessimistic note, with lots of impatience.
And I'm sure, Paul, you've been doing this for years, and you know, we keep repeating these things.
I've been in this business for over a year and a half now, and we've just had hearings in all provinces of Canada, except the two biggest ones, Quebec and Ontario. I bet we've received enough information now to fix the system, even without going to Ontario or Quebec. Roughly the same ideas are going to come.
We have a tendency to say it's the bureaucrats, or why isn't it happening? I guess the country needs to have a vision, but we also need to have a will to put this vision forward. I'd like to submit that we have the information now, and somehow we need to get this moving, so that if I happen to be around next time the agriculture committee goes on tour, we won't be talking about the same thing; we'll be looking then at something different as to how we can advance this vision.
I'd like some comments on that. That's my statement for the morning. I don't usually do that.
Monsieur Gareau, I have a couple of questions on potatoes. Yesterday, Mr. MacIsaac, from the P.E.I. Potato Board, made some comments. Unfortunately, he left early and we didn't have a chance to pursue them. He said that in North America now there is some kind of memorandum of understanding and cooperation in regard to movement of potatoes. I'd like to get some idea of what's happening, because on the other hand, we're seeing, for example, here and in British Columbia, this dumping of Washington state apples. We're not having a lot of cooperation because of the sheer volume of American produce being dumped on our markets, because of those subsidies.
How is it that we can arrive at or be in the process of arriving at some kind of memo of understanding and cooperation that implies a free flow of potatoes across the border? Does this imply that we still have a chance to supply our own country with our potatoes? Could you give us some clarification on this?