Thank you, Chair.
As much as I listen to my learned colleague, we're not actually worried about UPOV 78. We're actually worried about UPOV 91. So what 78 said or didn't say really isn't relevant anymore, since the government intends to go to 91.
I would bring to the parliamentary secretary's attention the fact that UPOV 91 has been amended in many countries and deemed fit based on the country. Some accepted UPOV 91 as is. This government seems intent on assuming this role, but clearly you can amend it to meet the needs of your individual citizens and farmers if you so choose. We've seen that elsewhere.
The intent here is to ensure that the biotech companies, when they have something, don't use the scare tactic of simply picking someone out who may have inadvertently done something and go after them in the court system. Farmers have somewhat deep pockets, but not nearly as deep as the firms that would come after them. That's been the case in the past. It is about a chill factor that would go through the farming community when someone has done nothing willful, if it were simply the result of an inadvertent circumstance. That's the intent of this, and nothing more than that. It's to make sure that there is a somewhat level playing field for both a farmer and a biotech firm. They get protection under UPOV 91. Farmers feel somewhat protected in a sense that if something unwanted happened to them, they wouldn't deliberately go out and break the law and steal somebody's intellectual property, which we agree you can't do. This is making it reasonable that this won't happen to them. That's all the intent is.