Thank you for taking the time to be here.
In the same vein, I'm doing hearings across the country dealing with food sovereignty and food security. I'm listening to folks. A lot of people are saying that some of our trade obligations are making it hard for us to maintain our food sovereignty, and that it's hard for a lot of farmers to make a living.
A couple of years ago, this committee made a number of recommendations on food security. One of them was that we should encourage our government to have a local procurement policy when buying for federal government institutions. This was a unanimous recommendation. The push-back we got from the minister at that time was that we have to be very careful because of trade obligations. I want to reiterate that trade seems to be the main thing we're focusing on. Yet we've seen in the cattle industry over the last 20 years that, although trade has tripled, the cattle producers are going out of business and getting less than half of what they got 20 years ago. We just signed an agreement. We're in the process of signing agreements with some European countries that is effectively going to kill our shipbuilding industry, because we decided not to protect it.
This is the problem we're all wrestling with. How do we come to grips with it?
I believe, Mr. Robertson, you mentioned at the WTO that nothing should be excluded—or maybe it was you, Mr. Davis. Does that mean we just sign on at all costs? Does that mean that we forget about supply management for the sectors where farmers are actually making money? I understand that each dairy farmer stands to lose $70,000 if we sign on. As to the Wheat Board, if we sign on, we'll no longer have loan guarantees.
We're talking about an ideal world where we have free trade, where we sign these agreements. Since the financial crisis, various countries have put 47 protectionist measures in place. Should we not have a back-up plan? Should we not be going into this very cautiously? We're trying to get these ideal agreements, but we're seeing what's happening. Shouldn't we be doing something to protect our farmers and to guarantee a sovereign food supply? I think that's a question for all sectors of the agricultural industry. I don't know what that answer is. I'm sure we're all thinking about it.
We have protectionism; we have harmonization. A lot of folks mentioned in my tour that any produce coming into Canada should meet the same pesticide standards that we have, period. If we import apples or oranges from somewhere, they should meet the same high standards that we have for content.
Let's see if we can get some answers.