Thank you, Chair.
I like what I heard about the credit unions. As a member of a credit union for the past 40-some-odd years, I appreciate the compliment to the credit union factor.
I will get back to what I heard down at this corner, the talk about young farmers.
Marie-Anne, you talked about the fact that we're not necessarily seeing young farmers, unless of course they happen to be family members who are still hoping to progress in the farm field, and we're going to be relying on immigrant stock to come into the country. By and large, I'm not sure we're seeing as many, in the farm sector, at least, as we probably saw in the 1950s, when they came at that particular moment in time.
I am having a hard time seeing your names down there. Greg was talking about his family.
It seems to me when you talk about price-takers...Brian talked about it in this whole sector, about how we get folks into it. How do we convince the Canadian public? I live in a farm area. I know you like the terminology “value added”. I came out of the auto sector and we've been talking about “value added” for 30-odd years. So the terminology I hear on the farm sector I've heard for a long time in other sectors, in the manufacturing sector.
The problem is, it's always the middle and the end of the value chain that actually makes the money, not the front end. You can see that in the manufacturing sector as well, by the way. The auto sector has five tiers. The top tier happens to be the person who puts the badge on the door going out and sells you the car. The one at the bottom end is the fifth tier, which is you, which is the primary producer, the smallest pieces that are going into it. In your case, you're the biggest piece of the producer, but you're ending up with the least amount of money.
How do we convince folks of your value? To be honest, you are the value in the value-added chain, not the other end, not the corn flakes coming out of the box, which you referenced, Brian. What do we do to engage the public, who talk about there being a way to give them food that's affordable, not cheap, and that indeed keeps you in the business that we need to keep you in? Otherwise we don't eat at the end, cheaply or otherwise.