Another aspect is the side of regulations and food safety. Canada right now provides a lot of high-quality foods and needs to continue to do so. Canadians have been able to trust that they have a safe, high-quality supply of food, and I think that's something that we can't neglect. That's something for which we have to keep high standards, and we have to work towards getting them as high as possible.
That being said, with such a high quality of food that we provide, we can't let lower-quality foods come in from other regions of the world. If Canadians expect a certain quality of food and Canadian producers produce that certain quality of food, it's not right that we buy a lower quality of food just because it's cheaper. We have to make sure that any food coming in meets those quality standards. Those quality standards don't apply only to the final product; they should apply to how the product is produced. Are they doing it ethically? Are they doing it in an environmentally sound manner? Are they doing it in the socially responsible manner?
These are things that really need to be looked at if we're going to import food and we're going to say that food is of as high a quality as Canadian food is. Is it only the final quality that's as good, or is it how it's produced? I think that's a key issue that needs to be looked at. A lot of times the lower price comes from neglecting some of the other areas in production, like environmental standards and social standards in other countries. So that's really important to look at.
As far as government programs and funding go, they should be better advertised. Farmers should know a lot more about them. They should be easier to access. There should be a lot less red tape. Make them easier to access. Make them more visible so that farmers know how they work, where they are, and what programs they have access to. A lot of times farmers don't even know that there are great programs out there. Not enough is known about them, so farmers don't even access them.
There is also the area of research and development. Young farmers see that as very important, because it's one thing to just give money to farmers or tell farmers to become more efficient or to become better producers, but we need information. We live in an information age, and that's probably the biggest thing. You can't manage unless you have the information to manage, right? If you're running a farm, you need to know as much as possible. You need to have all the information that you can.
As was mentioned earlier, a lot of private industry does research and development. It's profit-driven for them, but we think that the government should step in and do a lot more regional research in crop development and stuff like that so that farmers have unbiased information to work with.
As well as being financially supportive to farmers, we think the government should also be the farmers' biggest supporter in other ways. If farmers are given the tools they need, they can manage to survive financially. They need the government to step in and support them in international relations—in dealing with other countries—or in policy dealings. We need strong government in that regard, to provide a strong industry. Then farmers can manage to make money if their industries are strong. We think the policy framework should be seen as somewhat of a failure if farmers have to rely on safety nets. Safety nets are important, but they should be seen as a last resort for the farmers.
I think I should wrap it up. Thank you for your time.