Thank you very much.
There's very clearly a major disconnect between the acreage of the crops produced in Canada and the investment going into those crops. First and foremost, I think it comes back to the ability of companies to receive a return on investment when they invest in those crops. That comes back to a couple of things; first of all, their ability to protect intellectual property through hybridization—and thus their achievement of certified seed sales—and/or patenting being available for crops that lend themselves to genetic modification, such as canola and soybeans or corn.
Again, that's very central to our concern about innovation going forward: how do we create the incentives necessary to stimulate private sector investment in those open pollinated crops, and particularly crops that don't lend themselves to modification?
Again, when we look at four of Canada's five major crops in western Canada—wheat, durum, barley, and oats—there are very, very low levels of private investment in them. Hence, we're coming forth with a number of proposals as to how we can spur higher percentage use of certified seed in those crops and generate more returns back to innovation in those areas.
To this point, even the technology that has been developed in the public sector becomes very marginal, in terms of our ability to deliver that, because the return on investment is so marginal on many of those crops.
Again, we echo your concerns there exactly.