Since you raise the topic of prices, I would really like to hear your opinion of what Mr. Busby, from the C.D. Howe Institute, and the people from the Montreal Economic Institute, are alleging, together with all the other organizations that are denigrating supply management, claiming that it poses a problem for consumers. Indeed, according to all these people, consumers would be paying a lot less for their milk were it not for supply management. Of course, if we had access to Chinese milk containing melamine, it perhaps would be less expensive, but I am not sure that consumers would wind up being the winners. I am exasperated by the fact that these people do not provide evidence. In addition, the evidence that we do have contradicts their opinion. You yourself said that, in the United States, milk is not necessarily less expensive, and that the prices fluctuate a lot more than they do here.
The C.D. Howe Institute and other organizations that attack supply management cite New Zealand and Australia as an example. However, the elimination of supply management merely allowed big operators to establish huge farms. Agricultural producers became employees or became unemployed, or went into something else. I never heard that consumers in New Zealand paid 20¢ per litre of milk. Statistics show that there are no advantages for the consumers. And yet, this is the main argument used by people who attack supply management. In Canada, we can count on stable prices. We may pay slightly more for our milk than elsewhere in the world for a certain period of time, but at other times, we have the price advantage. I would like to know what you think about this.