Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, guests, for coming.
As you can see this bill has a lot in it. A lot of good changes are going to be made in the agricultural industry. There's a sense that we need to have legislation. It's difficult sometimes when it's all in one bill. I think overall whoever I talk to in the industry agrees there need to be changes. A lot of good stuff is in this bill, but some say there has to be some tweaking.
Mr. White on the advance payments, my question to the minister on Monday was, why not increase to $800,000. I think he said 94% don't go beyond $400,000 and we have to keep benefiting small farmers and their 6%. I see that you were saying the 6% who use it, that's last year's figure, or whatever, the year before. So now we're up to 10%. Farm sizes are increasing, but you're also increasing your input and whatnot. So it's going to keep going higher and higher. Do you think there could have been a bit of a happy medium when a lot of people are saying $400,000 is not enough and the minister is saying $800,000 is too high. Do you see that percentage going higher and higher? Also, do you think the minister and this committee should look at some sort of middle of the road, maybe $600,000 or something, that's going to help farmers in the next decade?