Mr. Bast, thank you for your presentation. Thank you, everyone, for your presentations and for coming up to make them.
Some time ago, not too long ago, I had an opportunity to visit one of the largest, if not the largest, manufacturing plants for pasta--Delverde and De Checco--in the Maiella mountains on the west coast of Italy. What I learned there is that what is important to the production of pasta is fresh water. They have an absolute abundance, a free supply, of fresh water from the melting snows of the Maiella. My understanding is that fresh water is as important to them as the cost of wheat.
In fact, as I understand it, a Wheat Board model doesn't exist in the United States either, and they're not manufacturing pasta. I don't mean to put you on the spot, but on what grounds do you make the comment that it's because of the existence of the Wheat Board that pasta makers are not in the Canadian west making pasta, when in fact my understanding is that it's more an issue of water than it is of wheat?