Yes, it reads:
That the committee begin a study on consolidation of the fertilizer industry in Canada and its impact on Canadian farmers. And that the committee report its findings to the House of Commons.
I don't see us doing this right now, Mr. Chair. You're using the words “park it”, till the new year, I guess.
But I do think one of the things that has certainly come out of the potash takeover proposals is that you want to talk about a supply management system. It's interesting that so many people in big corporations attack the supply management system in Canada, but there's nothing like the supply management system run by the potash companies of the world, and one of the big players in that is Canpotex, which really is the single-desk seller for Potash Corporation and Agrium and Mosaic. They're the single-desk seller for potash. In fact, there was the article in The Globe and Mail that starts this way: “For nearly forty years, it was the cartel no one talked about. Then came the food crisis, runaway prices and BHP Billiton's hostile takeover bid for Potash Corp. Now there is a harsh spotlight on Canpotex.”
I'll not read any further than that, Mr. Chair, but when you start to look at the amount of power that Canpotex has in terms of pricing, you will see that they basically shut down mines when they don't get the price they want to get. It's not a free market in the potash industry. The people who pay the excess prices for that potash are the primary producers who use it as fertilizer, and not only farmers in Canada but also everyone around the world.
So I do think that at some point in time we need to look seriously at the consolidation in the potash industry, how it's affecting the cost of production of our producers in Canada, and how it's affecting food supply around the world. In fact, they're reducing the supply of potash at times, not because they're not making a profit but because they are not making big enough profits for their shareholders. They could in fact be accused of creating a food shortage in some areas of the world.
So this is an important motion. I think we have other priority issues at the moment, so I will “park it” until the new year. But I want to leave it on the books, because after this takeover bid, now we know how powerful Canpotex is and how they manage supply at the expense of primary producers and food suppliers.