I think we've done it by actions, not just by words. We were the only political party in last spring's election to actually have it in our campaign platform. We brought it forward into our throne speech, the direction the new government will take.
Certainly I am more than happy to meet with my supply-managed colleagues across the country at any time to talk about their issues. We've done a number of things for them, such as cheese compositional standards. The protein levels that were being brought in sort of under the wire, we've shut that down. We work with them every step of the way to make sure they retain the strength and the ability to give Canadians that top-quality product.
I know there are a lot of discussions. I look at my old friend Garth Whyte with the restaurant association complaining bitterly about dairy, the costs, and all that type of thing. Nothing could be further from the truth. I love to use the example of a glass of milk in a restaurant. It's going to cost you, as a customer, $2.50 to $3.00. A farmer is going to get less than 20¢ of that, and the waiter or waitress is going to want a 10% or 15% tip, which is double what the farmer got. Who's the problem? It's certainly not the farmer. And it's good quality milk. We've never had a melamine problem, and we've never had an issue where we've had to go back.
We understand the value and validity of Canada's supply-managed system. Mr. Fast, in talking about trade, starts off, as we always do, having everything on the table, and we negotiate our way through. At the end of the day, we now have a free trade deal with Switzerland—the dairy of Europe—and we did not hinder our supply-managed system at all in doing that.
We look forward to doing those trade deals. We are an exporting nation. In most commodities we export between 50% and 80% of what we produce, and people understand that Canadian quality is of the top.