Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The chair has, I think, basically outlined the concerns that we have. I guess I should say, in the beginning, that we understand that your job is to administer the laws that you have been given. If the law doesn't give you the authority to deal with a situation the way we want it dealt with, that's not your fault. So I don't want you to think we're blaming you for the problems.
But to be quite direct, the farm sector has pretty well found the Competition Bureau, forever, to be absolutely useless in dealing with the concerns that farmers face on the farm input side. KAP, for instance, did a study of fertilizer costs, and they went to the Competition Bureau, but they might as well have walked around the block for all the help the Competition Bureau was to them. So the concentration in the industry and its impact on input costs is a real concern for the farm sector, as we feel there's potential price collusion, but because it's on the input side it seems hard to deal with.
Now, we made a recommendation about this in our June 2007 report. I don't know whether you've seen it, but we can give you a copy. We basically said that we're concerned about the domination and concentration in the agrifood chain, and we made a recommendation—and I guess the second point is perhaps the most important— that the government introduce a general administrative monetary penalty provision for abuse of dominance in any industry, which would encourage businesses in most industries to comply with the Competition Act. We felt that the Competition Act, the way it was—because something has to be almost criminal—should be changed. We suggested that the “government decriminalize the discriminatory and predatory pricing provisions in the Act in order that these practices receive a full hearing on their likely economic effects” on the industry, basically. But we'll give you a copy of that.
I don't know who can answer that, but what is your view of it? Our view is that the Competition Act doesn't work. What do we need to do to make it work for costs of inputs to the farm sector?
My second question—and Debra, you can think about this while somebody else is answering the first question—is about the definition of 51% of total direct costs. I think the definition was designed for industries that are manufacturing widgets and different parts for cars, and so on, but we're talking about food. Can anybody actually sit there and tell us that 51% of the direct costs, which really have not a darn thing to do with the product in the package, are “Canadian” and believe that's truth in labelling? When a consumer goes to the shelf and picks up a product that says “Product of Canada”, and it's the cost of the packaging, the box, the plastic around it, the labour of mixing water with it, or whatever, and it has nothing to do with the content, do you really think that's truth in labelling for the consumer who goes to the grocery store shelf?
Anyway, think about that, Debra, and tell me what we can do about it. You're a good Islander, so I wouldn't want to criticize you.