Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Ritz, for appearing.
I have two quick questions.
First, among those people we spoke to in crossing the country, there was concern about farm transfers to the next generation, and that the next generation--younger children--wasn't necessarily prepared to take those farms. Will you and are you considering talking to the Minister of Finance about changing the tax regulations on transfers to non-related people?
Second, with respect to GMOs, we know that GMOs are going to be necessary if we're going to build capacity in poorer countries and if we're going to be able to deal with agriculture in the face of climate change. However, notwithstanding that, we heard in our discussions on Bill C-474 about the threat to biodiversity, particularly in wheat and alfalfa.
What do you plan to do about that with regulations? What are you looking at to protect our alfalfa and wheat farmers from the threat to biodiversity by GMOs?