Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
One of the principles of these supply managed sectors is the amount of quota in the system is managed by the stakeholders to equate to the domestic requirements for the product. When you look at the national quota for industrial milk, for example—and I was talking about how it grew after the Uruguay Round and has slipped back a little in the last couple of years—what that's reflecting is the disappearance of dairy products, in effect the consumption of dairy products by Canadians. The system is geared to respond to consumer demand. So the national quota reflects what consumers are purchasing and consuming.
In terms of the consolidation of dairy farms, this is a world-wide trend. If you look at any major dairy-producing country across the world you'll see there has been a tendency for greater specialization. A consolidation in the number of farms has been continuing for 50 years in Canada. At one time there were a quarter of a million or more dairy farms; there are now 16,000. That's a trend that is difficult to see changing.
That is facilitated by the producer organizations themselves in that they allow producers who leave the sector to sell their quota to other producers. That tends to lead to larger operations, and that is implied in decisions made by individual provincial marketing boards. It's not a trend the government controls, and it is one most people would regard as hard to change.