Thank you very much, gentlemen--I believe it's all gentlemen this morning at the table--for appearing.
It is very timely. It seems that every time we approach the spring seeding season, we're into this whole input cost issue. I'd like to pose a lot of questions to you, Glen, because it's an issue that's near and dear to my heart. But I want to start on another area, because I sort of see my questions along this line.
Looking at where fertilizer costs have gone over the last four years, from 2002 to 2006, we see an increase of about 7.6% a year. That was up until 2006. Now 2007-08 are going to show remarkably higher numbers and increases, which is going to skew those figures substantially. The argument, of course, is that we have a huge demand for fertilizer throughout the world: potash, ammonium nitrate, and other sources. Costs have increased because of the demand.
That creates, in my mind at least, another problem. If there's demand in India, China, and all of these countries, and Brazil, where they're now producing more product, what is that going to do to prices in the future in terms of the commodity they're producing? We know we need the food, but we won't want to pay for it, so that creates a further problem.
When you have a commodity such as potash in Saskatchewan, half of Saskatchewan sits on top of potash, so there is potash there into eternity. Why have we not developed more mines? The argument will be made that it wasn't profitable. Yet in 2006 the CEO of the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan took home $11.5 million as a bonus because he was such a good manager. Now, $11.5 million, in the overall scheme of things, is perhaps not a lot of money, but it is a lot of money. That is a lot of money that would help a lot of farmers in terms of reducing their prices. What's he going to get this year and next year for what he's doing?
These are the kinds of things that have farmers questioning what is going on, because there is no competition. We have Cargill, which is a partner with Mosaic, and they have operations both south and north of the border. It doesn't really matter where you buy, whether you're selling your steer or buying potash or whatever you're buying or doing, you're dealing with Cargill. That's the problem today. We are price takers, but we pay the price when it comes to the farm gate. The only place we can't add price is at the farm gate. Everyone else has an opportunity to do that up the chain, right to the plate.
I don't know how we can justify selling potash in the United States of America, when the dollar is at par now, for considerably less money that what we're selling it for here in Canada. To me, there is something wrong. If we, as the government, can't change that.... Glen has given us some opportunity to make some changes. We need to seriously look at what he's suggested this morning. Are we, as politicians, afraid to act? Is the department running the show? The Competition Bureau isn't helping us. We know that. They have no teeth and never will help us until we make some major changes. Are the farm organization leaders helping farmers, or what are we working for today?
I'm confused. We talk about construction and destruction. I think we're in destruction right now, not in construction.
Take it from there, guys. I have a lot of very pointed questions I could ask, but I will put that on the table.