Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, gentlemen. Thank you for coming this morning.
This phenomenon we're facing didn't happen overnight. This is something that has been evolving over a number of years. For whatever reasons, it hasn't been addressed as enthusiastically or as forcefully as it should have been, and so be it. I'm very proud that our government, especially the Prime Minister in December.... The very things you've been telling us this morning have been told to us since we took over government. The Prime Minister, with his consumer and food action plan, tried to address that and has brought out $113 million, as a matter of fact, in this action plan to do the very kinds of things you want done.
So I think we're heading in the right direction, and we've made a commitment--our government, the Prime Minister, even in the throne speech. Our minister has made a commitment to address these very serious issues.
Mr. Kyte, I just want a clarification. In your opening comments you mentioned that in your mind consumers want safe food, that they look at price, they look at content, and maybe they look at origin.
I don't necessarily agree that maybe they look at origin; I think Canadian consumers look at origin just about all the time. Can you explain why you think that maybe the origin of the product is not as important as some of the other things, why you feel that way?