Sure. Back up just one little bit, Mr. Bellevance. It was actually the agricultural sector, the livestock sector, cattle particularly, that called for that level of SRM removal and traceability and so on to help open markets. During the BSE crisis, we went ahead and did that. Of course, we are looking at—what will I say?—some extra cost to the Canadian industry at this point that is unfairly weighted against them, as opposed to our trading partners, and that's the point you're making.
I don't disagree with that. The situation we find ourselves in is that the $50 million that the Canadian Cattlemen's Association and the provincial arms of that are asking for would in no way get back to the farm gate. It would get into the processing sector and possibly into the feedlot, but there's no guarantee that it would get back to the farm gate in any significant way.
We are looking at different ways of addressing the SRM situation and at maybe taking certain products away. We've actually been overqualified on SRM removal at this point, compared to our competitors, because we needed to get the border back open during BSE. We're still behind with the Japanese market. We are going back into the American market in a big way, but it is due to our traceability and our SRM removal that we have been allowed to do that, and that has taken some of the sting out.
We do have $130 million available—$80 million federally, $50 million provincially. That pot of money is available for SRM removal costs. There's a pilot project in Montreal in which they're taking those rendering products and making biodiesel out of them. There are other companies that are putting biodigesters in to develop power. I was in the Maple Leaf plant in Brandon, and they're putting in a biodigester to use up a lot of their.... They do 1,300 hogs an hour, 75,000 a week, and they have a lot of offcuts and offproduct that they are now rendering and turning into biodiesel. The offshoot from that is power to generate back into their whole plant. So it's a completely integrated situation.
Those are the types of things that I think are going to help us in the long run and that I think will do far more to stimulate the economy than that $50 million. There's really no program or plan for how that would be applied.
We are getting a lot better trade treatment from countries due to the processing sector we have here, due to the CFIA regulations. As tough as they are to bear right now, you know, in the long run, they will pay off for us.