Thank you, Chair.
Thank you again for being here.
I have a comment on the ad hoc payment.
One of the challenges the federal government faces is that if it does something like an ad hoc payment, a per head payment, it's trade-actionable. This is detrimental to the country; it's detrimental to the agricultural sector. Other countries would absolutely take trade action against Canada. We're in the process right now of taking trade action against other countries, like the U.S., for things they have done. So as for any kind of per head payment, the minister's been clear that we just cannot do it.
Sometimes provinces can get away with it because it's not national, it's provincial. When other countries look, they say, “Oh, it's a province.” Is it worth their time and effort to take on a province as another country?
And Mr. Easter knows this, so he's playing both ends of the middle—