Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'll make part of the presentation in French and Harold will conclude with the second part.
On behalf of dairy, poultry and egg farmers, I thank you for the invitation to appear before the committee on Growing Forward. There has been considerable progress on the development of agricultural policy since we met with this committee during your study on the agricultural policy framework last spring.
Since then, this committee released its report, the government has responded, federal, provincial and territorial ministers have signed an agreement in principle, Growing Forward, and met again in November to move this agreement forward even more.
Dairy, poultry and egg farmers were pleased with the committee's 20th recommendation in their report last June that supply management and its three pillars be recognized as a business risk management program. We worked very hard for this, and we were heard by government. We greatly appreciate it.
It is important and gratifying to farmers who attend committee meetings taking place outside of Ottawa to see that they do have a direct impact on public policy. We thank you and believe that your recommendation helped in securing this important acknowledgement in Growing Forward, which states:
Supply management is a business risk management program for the supply managed elements of agriculture that are governed by their own federal, provincial and territorial agreements—the national marketing plans.
We greatly appreciate that.
We congratulate the federal government on recognizing the recommendation of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food that supply management, together with its three pillars, is inherently a business risk management program. This recognition needs to be included in each implementation agreement that will be signed by the federal minister with his provincial counterparts. We trust that our members can continue to rely on all members of Parliament to ensure that this happens.
A related recommendation on supply management is No. 21, which calls on the government to provide the necessary legislative support for farmer-run, orderly marketing agencies to continue to work effectively on farmers' behalf in the area of business risk management. This recommendation also calls on the government to negotiate at the WTO to ensure that supply management is maintained. Our business risk management program relies on three interdependent pillars: import controls, producer pricing and production discipline.
This is why domestic policy development cannot be done in isolation of trade negotiations; Canada needs to stand up for supply management at the WTO and ensure that any agreement does not compromise any of the three pillars.