Thank you, David.
Thank you for the question, Mr. Lemieux.
Our view is that it's an enterprise prospect, with willing sellers and willing buyers, not coerced or compelled by legislation or regulation but trying to find mutual benefit. There is mutual benefit, but sometimes it's not very easy to find. Sometimes even the regulatory system doesn't encourage it.
Past attitudes and battles in the marketplace have not encouraged people to come together. But if they can they will find they can drive value to the consumer, possibly reduce their costs and waste, find better ways of dealing with it, and be adaptable over time.
This isn't something that's replicated just through regulation or one management study. You have to keep working at it. It varies by commodity. The commodity outlook or the demand outlook for a dairy producer in Quebec and Ontario is very different from that of a potato producer in P.E.I. or New Brunswick. It's different again for a beef producer in Alberta or Saskatchewan. How do you find the right processing balance?
You also deal with a lot of history here. Past differences and views, past legislation, and past attitudes have not always encouraged people to come together. So there has to be a willing capacity. Governments can encourage that, enable that, help management capacities, and help the understanding of what's really happening in the marketplace. But people shouldn't be compelled or coerced into making this happen.