Sure. I will say, in defence of the government, that there has been a program for grain dryers specifically. The challenge with it is that grain dryers are an expensive piece of equipment. To upgrade or to buy a new one, we're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars. Even a $20-million fund doesn't go very far when we have to upgrade tens of thousands of grain dryers across the country or to build newer, more efficient ones. In terms of the technological advancements, as they relate to the 10-year period, it's going to be a challenge.
If we think of the need to look at what the outcomes are of using a different heat source, one of the things we've looked at would be biomass. One of the ideas has been the use of straw that is currently.... You know, after harvest, there's straw in the field. Well, what is the impact of taking a harrow over that field again? What is the diesel usage to pull that straw together to then bundle it, save it and burn it as needed? What is the impact on soil organic matter? There could be ramifications.
The forestry industry, whether it be wood products...maybe there are options there. I don't know what the impacts could be, but I think we need to look at this in a bit of a holistic manner. Okay, maybe these fuel sources are possible, but what are the impacts going to be on factor x? Then, in the context of how we convert tens of thousands of dryers to that, what are the manufacturing needs to get the proper new innovations on each of these farms, and at what scale can we actually do that?
With regard to your question about 10 years, I think that's ambitious. I think we're okay if it means getting this legislation passed, and a sunset is a good idea. That's why I go back to a mechanism, an order in council or whatever it is, to allow that if that doesn't happen in the timeline.... I think we'd all like to see...and certainly the farmer, if he could see reduced spending on this, he would more than happily make those purchases. Again, add in the environmental benefit, and he or she will happily do that, but I think we need to be realistic in how fast this could be brought up to scale to have meaningful impact in terms of overall emissions for our country.