Thank you very much for the question.
Yes, PMRA is proposing to increase by 256% the fees that registrants pay for maintaining their plant protection products in Canada. That will have a huge impact on access to innovation and the competitiveness of our agricultural sector.
First of all, this will place the fees in Canada at about seven to 10 times higher than the fees that my members in the U.S. are paying for the same type of products that they're maintaining in the market. This is for a Canadian market that is about 10 times smaller than the U.S. market. It would be a significant competitive disadvantage for Canada if that proposal were to go ahead.
The PMRA is planning to go to a CG1 process with this proposal later in the fall. We're quite concerned that they haven't really consulted the sector following the public consultation that took place back in the spring. We believe, and we agree with the PMRA, that the fee structure needs to be updated, and it has needed to be updated for a long time. We've made constructive proposals to the PMRA, and we've asked them to discuss them further. We believe that our proposal will let them achieve their financial goals by getting the money they need to ensure the long-term stability of their program and making sure we get innovations in the hands of growers, but without impacting the competitiveness of the sector. Unfortunately, we haven't been consulted further on this.