Thank you very much, Chair
Thank you to the three of you for appearing before our committee today.
I think the level of concern that people have is quite evident from your opening statements, and I hope that we as parliamentarians can find a way to bring this debate to the House of Commons as well. We have a lot of members of Parliament who represent canola-producing regions. I'm not one of them, but I think, as the elected representatives of the people of Canada, that, especially in canola regions, we need to have that ability to focus our attention on this.
I substituted on the international trade committee last week when we heard from Minister Carr and Minister Bibeau. Both explained some of the efforts that the Government of Canada is making, the working groups that have been formed and the need to send a high-level delegation to China.
I want to know, given what you have seen from the Government of Canada.... I agree that we need a team Canada approach where we don't make this a partisan issue and where we're all working together because of the value of this crop. It's one of our flagship agricultural exports, but are we doing enough?
I would like to hear from the three of you about your ideas, because you're the producers, and this is your chance to provide testimony on what more you'd like to do. I heard in your opening statement that more forceful pressure is needed. How long do we wait for China to agree to this high-level delegation before we regard it as a loss of face? Furthermore, when we're looking at the size of the Chinese market, are we sometimes blinded by that with regard to how they've dealt with other countries in the past when threats to their national pride have been made? They've dealt quite harshly with other countries before in completely unrelated matters, and now we're suffering this.
Going forward, are we doing enough? How long should we wait before we start looking at other things like the fact that we have a $40-billion trade deficit with China? I'd love to hear some of your comments about that.