Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for being a part of this.
First of all, I want to apologize that you were only given 10 minutes to present. When the NFU comes next week, the opposition agreed to give them at least half an hour to present. That wasn't the direction from here.
I have four questions to lead off, if I might. Dennis, you mentioned at the start of your presentation that some of the provinces were working against not only the commodities but the federal government in terms of the federal-provincial negotiations. What provinces would those be? Could you help us with that?
Secondly, in the province of Ontario they've brought in the unionization of workers. You just talked about workers from other countries coming in and working at our plants. We know that in the processing plant, as much as technology has come in, those jobs often are still a high-labour job and many workers come in from other countries. I'm wondering if you would have a comment about how that affects our competitiveness, or might. Maybe you don't know that just yet.
Third, I always want to go back to exports because we've talked so much about them. As you mentioned earlier, the success of the industry and the open market business is having access to markets. You mentioned earlier how we're the largest exporter of grain-fed beef in the world. I wouldn't mind having a comment about the opportunity you've seen or that we may have to expand on that particular one because of the high use of the beef we produce.
It was interesting to hear your comments about some of the costs we have. John, you mentioned we may be out $250. I don't think I comprehended how much the auto industry likely affects the beef industry, because very few vehicles do not have leather in them, or leather seats, or panelling and what have you. So I would like to have some thoughts on that.
I was struck by the amount. You said there's $82 at least per head, as an average, if we don't get these markets open; these are the ones we're talking about now. I would like clarification on that, a lot of things...and help me understand that getting to the bottom line where it works is not about one bite. If you're going to eat the elephant, I've always said, you have to eat it in a few bites, so obviously the markets and the expansion of....
When I talk to people in Canada, consumers, about the animal, when we kill an animal, what we eat in Canada and what we consider to be prime parts of the animal in Canada, there are certainly prime parts of the animal we don't eat. We can't comprehend, we likely wouldn't want to think about it, but they are a delicacy in other countries. So I think it's always about the market and being able to expand that.
Fourth, you have a market development council report of a sort. I apologize for not having the name of it. I don't know if you could expand, because I'm not sure everybody comprehends what might be in that report and its value.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.