Thank you, Mr. Chair.
No one can be against competitiveness; it is like apple pie. But the feeling I am now getting from the Conservative government is that they are trying to make it their trademark. They say that competitiveness is important and that they are going to do this, that and the other. But does it not actually harm competitiveness if our standards are not harmonized with those in place in the United States, our principal trading partner, particularly for specified risk materials, for example? We have regularly discussed this here and we have often asked you questions about it. I know that sometimes perhaps we are repetitive, but we really have no choice because the government and the Minister of Agriculture do not seem to be able to get it into their heads. On the new standards for specified risk materials, officials, and politicians on the government side, come here to tell us that it will all turn out fine and that, at the end of the day, our producers will not be penalized because the Americans are going to adopt the same standards eventually. But that is not so. We are losing $40 or $50 per head of cattle because of it. And, at present, we are in an economic crisis. Agricultural producers are not in their own separate box, they are not immune from the economic crisis. This is global, so it cuts into our market even more.
What do you think about that? It is always important, but, at the moment, is it not even more urgent to have standards harmonized?