Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Betker, on the matter of the safety net advisory committee, I think we're seeing from the new government that if the advice doesn't suit what they want to hear, the advisory committee won't be around. We're seeing that across the piece; they don't want to hear what the community is really saying. They're ideologically driven, and that's the way they're going to go. That's the reality for the moment.
The lack of follow-through with the advisory committee by government and by the bureaucracy is something we've heard right across the country. That isn't just with the new government; it's been there for 30 years, and it really seems hard for the farm voice at the primary producer level to get the message up through the system. This committee passed a motion just a week or two ago trying to get the advisory committee meeting changed from being in the height of seeding time.
Bob, the CFA has been promoting the Canadian farm bill, and I think a lot of us agree with that concept. The difficulty is in implementing that kind of concept in the Canadian system of government, with its shared jurisdictions and so on, and across departments that, for whatever reason, are like stovepipes and don't want to work with one another.
If you look at the U.S. farm bill, there are school milk programs that are funded. They're funding a lot of programs that are GATT green in terms of environment, in terms of inspection fees, and so on and so forth.
We had the CFIA here. Maybe the researcher can tell me if I'm wrong, but I think they said they cost-recover 10%. Well, I would wager that if all they're cost-recovering is 10%, probably that full 10% is taken up in administration, in sending out bills to the farmers to collect it. They'd be better off not charging it at all; it would be a huge saving to the farm community.
How do you see doing a Canadian farm bill that's all-encompassing across several departments in the Canadian context?