Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We have a lot of experience around the table. I just said to Mr. Easter a few minutes ago, looking at the presentations, that I'm not sure how we're going to describe them.
If we go back, free trade was a big thing that happened here in the late 1980s. Was there ever a better time for agriculture than there is right now? If there was, when was it?
The second question I have is whether we have too many programs. In terms of your industry, how much time do you as a farmer spend answering programs? If you put that time into dollars, is it productive for you? Somebody already said that, frankly, most of the profits made in agriculture in Canada come from one level of government or another; they're not made from sales.
I have just those two questions, Mr. Chair. I'd like to know if there was a time. I think 1983 was a good year. We were all happy then. Was it 1976? It seems as though free trade has been a big part of all the hearings we've had. The WTO and the old GATT, which was before the WTO, seem to have really put a tremendous burden on the future of Canadian agriculture.
Arthur.