I'll keep mine short because I think he pretty much talked about what I wanted to.
Alex, in the motion you have put forward...you talk about elections; I know Wayne did, and correctly so. We talked about AgriFlex, agricultural flexibility. Another thing that has been clear is that we are committed to that. The agricultural flexibility is about giving the flexibility to the provinces to run their programs and then us working in the non-business risk management parts.
I look at the grains and oilseeds under the RMP, and it's going be interesting. I know Mr. Easter brings up how good a program it is, and it is a good program. It's not 40% funded by the province; actually it's 100% funded by the province because it's a provincial program. It's like ASRA in Quebec. It is not 40% funded by the province; it's 100% funded by the province, because it's a provincial program. So those programs, quite honestly, reach into Ontario; they reach three or four grain commodities.
When I'm talking to a number of my producers, I am asking them what is more important right now. I can talk to the grain guys, because it's the RMP, and ask them how much they've gotten from the RMP over the last three years. The RMP is a program that is not costing the government much; it is only costing the producers, because the grain prices have been on the rise. They went up in 2008 and 2009 and they've settled back a bit. So there may be some collection, but it'll be interesting now to see whether the province continues with that pilot project, because it is their project.
It's also been clear under the APF that once the federal government becomes part of a program like that, it's countervailable. Now you're going to have all kinds of people from both sides--I guess that's what lawyers do--some saying they are countervailable and some saying they aren't. But we've been assured they are countervailable. I can tell you my producers do not want to have their money being spent on countervail.
I'm wondering, Alex, if you've had those talks and those considerations with the provinces about the concern of the countervail that's going to happen should they become part of a business risk management program, for example, such as we have in Ontario.
I wonder if you could comment.