Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister, for being here.
I have just a quick comment on CETA. As we had spoken before, I thank you, as well as Minister Fast and the Prime Minister for getting this off the ground and making sure that it's working well. I did have an opportunity to travel this summer to London with the minister and the Prime Minister, and we had an opportunity to speak with producers, manufacturers, and distributors, and to see how excited they are about this agreement. They're eagerly awaiting when this is going to come into effect. I know that farmers in my riding, as well, are certainly looking forward to these new opportunities.
In the supplementals, of course, we are talking about the Canadian Wheat Board. Part of this, Minister, as we talk about this, involves the transition costs of $3 million as it becomes a voluntary grain-marketing organization. Of course, this is very consistent with the approach you took to this committee a few years ago to front-end load the transition costs for the Canadian Wheat Board in these first couple of years of marketing freedom and to reduce expenditures.
Again, as a farmer, I know from our own family, my father had freedom wheat that he planted when he first started farming, and it was not his after that crop came off. It was certainly something special to be able to see this transition. But we're seeing the Canadian Wheat Board purchasing physical assets, such as grain terminals throughout Canada, and it's increasing its capacity to remain a vibrant marketing option to farmers. All in all, the transition of the Canadian Wheat Board to a private market has been very positive. It's working well, despite what some of the naysayers have said.
So, Minister, I'm just wondering if you could comment and inform the committee on how the transition of the Canadian Wheat Board to the open market is working out for farmers, as our government had promised farmers that it would.