Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Meredith, for being here this afternoon.
It's kind of interesting; it's unique that we're actually going to develop a program without having the farm sector screaming and yelling for financial aid at one point or another. It seems like everybody else seems to be...in the farm sector is doing fairly well, and we're still moving forward with actually creating a program to help prevent the yelling and screaming and ad hoc payments coming in the future. I think it is something new for any government to actually be in this situation as we go forward and look at our next set of BRM programs.
One thing I was going to quiz you on and comment on is the trade aspect. Your department has been very involved in the trade file and very involved in opening up markets, and I thank you for working with the minister in doing that.
But I am curious about what we are doing to follow up on some of these trade deals as far as making sure that once the minister opens up a market, our farmers have an opportunity to take advantage of that market. What role are you serving there? Do you see that role changing as we move forward?