Thanks, Larry.
Thanks to all of you for being here.
Richard, it's good to see you again, as always. You mentioned a number of things in your presentation. One was trade access, and of course we're also talking about competitiveness, with the premise being that the more competitive our farmers are the better off we'll be in our rural communities.
My first question has to do with the Canada-Europe trade agreement. We know we're pushing farm groups and the government for more access to European markets. However, at least according to the research I've done, on the European side, the main corporations are driving their agenda, and they want more access, for example, to local contracts, to what we call subnational contracts, which could put our communities at risk due to competition from these companies. If they want to provide local jobs, then they could be sued by these companies. There are a lot of factors. There's the idea that this may increase the cost of drugs. There could be some control issues with regard to our water.
When you're looking at these agreements, are you looking at them from all sides? Are you looking at the potential effects that an agreement such as this one could have on our communities, for example, in western Canada? Has your organization given this much thought?