Thank you, Chair.
Actually, I'd just like to pick up on that last train of conversation, because I think it's important to have that conversation about technology and how it can help farmers. Although there were changes to BRM, there certainly was increased funding given to science and innovation.
I was reading in your brief—and having listened to Hans as well—that one of the challenges our farmers have is that the cost of production can be higher than in other countries.
For example, when you're talking about advances in machinery to help with harvesting, I would see that it would be advantageous to Canadian farmers. What I hear you saying, and perhaps you can correct me, is if a number of farmers buy that, then they lose that edge on the technology. That might be within the Canadian market, but in terms of being more competitive internationally, other countries may not have the wherewithal to have that technology. You're becoming more competitive because your cost of production is dropping for the average Canadian farmer, which makes them more competitive on exports.
Certainly this ties together with our trade agenda because it's a multi-faceted approach. Not only are we investing in science and innovation, but we're also doing it to make Canadian farmers more competitive, more competitive to sell internationally, and we're putting in place favourable trade agreements for Canadian farmers to sell their product internationally.
There are a lot of initiatives that work. They don't just fall under agriculture, but they're meant to work together to allow our farmers to be more competitive in selling their product, be it domestically or internationally.
I'm wondering if you would have any comments on that, and what you think of these trade agreements. Do you see those as being of help to your sector?