I have to tell you that while the weather is wonderful out here, the message is frightening. I anticipated it, based on what we've heard for the past year and half in our other study on competitiveness in the industry. It's now to the point where I'm alarmed, very alarmed.
It was said this morning by David Machial that it will be an inevitable decline if things don't change. I don't think these individual changes we're talking about are going to amount to more than kind of band-aid solutions to things. I may be wrong, and if I'm wrong, tell me, I'm glad to hear it, because I don't come from the farm. I come from the city of Guelph. I live in an urban area.
I also read from Christine's comments, “The relative stability in the dairy, egg and poultry sectors brought about by supply management has had the very direct [effect] of having many young men and women choosing to be directly involved in family farm businesses. The BCAC appreciates that supply management is not going to be the solution for most other sectors”; they're not supply managed.
There's a lot of aversion to going that direction in certain industries, and I understand that, but it seems that free trade hasn't really been a solution. In fact, it's hurt us just as it hurt the manufacturing industry in which we lost a lot of jobs to overseas. Now we're losing our farm opportunities to overseas.
What's the big solution? We could make some changes to the succession planning. We might harmonize regulations between the United States and Canada, as Bev Shipley's bill is attempting to do, so that we'd be competing a little more fairly with them. You indicated that they're allowed to use pesticides and other things that we can't use here.
Is going all the way to supply management a solution? Do any of you see that as a solution? Or do some of you have an absolute aversion to that? We have to have that talk.
Could I hear from any of you who feel strongly about it either way?