Thank you, Larry.
First of all, I want to thank each of you for coming before this committee. I know it has taken valuable time out of your day when no doubt you have other responsibilities to attend to.
We have travelled across Canada now to each of the western provinces, and for me it's been an eye-opener.
You're being optimistic, and I applaud you for that, but from what I've heard, I see the situation as grim.
People around this table have heard witnesses out west say that if we don't deal with this effectively, quickly, and responsibly--and it's going to take a lot more than tweaking a few of these programs--and if we don't have a full review of our farm laws and our programs, from our free trade agreements down to AgriStability and every other thing, then we are going to turn our rural areas into ghost towns.
Keith, you've been far too polite. I applaud you for that. But I think it's time you expected more from us as your members of Parliament. I really would insist on that from you, that you demand more. You're entitled to more.
Greg, I understand your point about food labelling, but darn it, most people out there are only interested in price. There's that certain part of the population who are prepared to buy Canadian, but the first thing they look at is price, unfortunately.
We've heard across the province and from you today about the need for correcting our business risk management programs, the issue of the cost of land being an impediment, and about the lack of harmonization between regulations and approval processes. Harry spoke about that. We talked about competition laws that are allowing certain parts of our industry to consolidate, whether that be the farm inputters, like fertilizers, or the processors, etc. I mean, there are so many things that are broken that anything but a total overhaul is going to really just underestimate the seriousness of the problem.
I'd like to talk about the competition laws. In Canada our competition laws only prevent price fixing. They don't prevent breaking up large companies, as they do in the United States.
Are any of you able to comment on the need for a law that would allow us to go to these large, consolidated companies that are making you be price-takers? Do you think there is a need to fix those laws?
Would anyone like to tackle that one?