Sure, I'd be happy to take the first crack at that.
Absolutely, we're concerned that our primary producers, first and foremost, need to make money in order for anyone else in the value chain to make money. You alluded to the U.S. Certainly we don't believe that the Canadian government, in the long term, can afford the kinds of ad hoc programs or funding and the stabilization in the same manner that the U.S. can on a per capita basis. That's why I think we need to look to more long-term systemic solutions in terms of innovation, and look to things like intellectual property, which is going to encourage investment over the long run and is going to keep our sector competitive, and competitive not just on the basis of handouts but on the basis of innovation going forward to drive profit at the farm gate level.
Certainly, I would say that the primary producers, particularly in western Canada, have struggled for quite a number of years. I think if you look at the areas where they're struggling, that goes back very much to those crops where there has been very little private sector investment. So while you say there are few dollars flowing back to primary producers in those areas, there have been few to no dollars, in some cases, flowing back to the private sector seed industry in those same crops.
So we very much echo those exact same concerns that producers do about profitability, because the numbers speak for themselves in terms of our submission that the seed industry just hasn't been able to afford to invest in those crops. We're on exactly the same page there.