Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and to the panel, it's great to have a great group of individuals here. On each of the panels we have heard some very, very positive things regarding farming. Obviously, that's why we have some young farmers here.
We also know there is some concern, basically, around two things. One, how do we get the programs right? But second, there is a concern about regulations. I'll tell you, the aggressive farmers we have—and we have a lot of them and we have seen them out there—who are farming, some of whom are actually doing very well and have been able to make it, tell us, “You level the table for us, thank you, and we'll do just fine.”
I had a motion on the floor that helped to do that, relating to the issue of why we are bringing stuff in from another country that we don't have licensed here. Why not give the licence to us? It was a little more complicated than that. It didn't quite get the support of everyone in government, but it got through, and now we're trying to put a process in place for it, because that is a common thread that we continually hear, that if our regulations are at odds with our production, then we have just automatically disadvantaged one of our producers in terms of their cost of production.
We always have a discussion on free trade agreements and supply management. Obviously, our government is a big supporter of supply management, and we've been able to demonstrate that. When we get into free trade agreements, and we've had eight free trade agreements so far, supply management has been a part of them. Agriculture has actually been a very successful part of all of those agreements. One of the things I think we recognize is that Canada and Ontario have had supply management, particularly in the dairy industry, since 1965. That came in as a national program in 1973, and it's no surprise to any country we go to. So when we're talking about free trade agreements, every country actually has issues that are specific to them. One of them in Canada is supply management. Other countries will have their cultural, social, and agricultural issues. So we don't go into these agreements with our hands tied behind our backs, as some would want to suggest. When we go into them, every country knows exactly where Canada stands.
I'm just wondering how we can move ahead in terms of the flexibility you require from the provinces. There have been indications that Quebec has a great program, that Ontario doesn't, and that Alberta does. We transfer billions of dollars to provinces, and they get the flexibility to do what they want with those dollars. Some tend to put it into agriculture more than others, I guess.
Do you have any suggestions on how we can work to change and to get that flexibility across the country?