Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thank you folks for coming.
It is clear that the Competition Bureau absolutely does not work when it comes to the farm sector and farm inputs. There's a farm expression I could use about how useless it is, but I wouldn't want to put it on the record.
I want to turn mainly to your area, Mr. Mann, and the whole area of generics. But I want to make a comment on fertilizer first.
I think you said that you brought in four boatloads of fertilizer. We have some individuals in my neck of the woods who are bringing in fertilizer. It's mostly triple-16 from Russia. For the committee's information, the saving on that fertilizer for a 400-acre potato grower, as compared to buying it from commercial companies--and there are basically only two big ones in our area--would be $60,000. That is just on purchasing triple-16, mainly from Russia. That's astronomical. Somebody, somewhere, is making money in this system.
The fertilizer companies bought at high prices, and now they want to download their purchasing at high commodity prices to farmers. I understand that. But farmers have no protection against it. There's no question as well that in that marketplace, from what I'm hearing from producers, the pressure is on: if you don't buy your fertilizer from some of the companies that traditionally sold it, then you may not have a market for your end product, if you're in that particular business. I think that's something we have to look at as well.
You mentioned generics in the beginning. I think you've made specific proposals to PMRA to get on with generic registration. You mentioned in your evidence that even where they are at the moment, we'll not have access to generics as quickly or as easily as they do in United States. Could you expand on that a little bit? Basically, what does this committee have to recommend to PMRA on generics to put us on a level playing field with the United States?