I'm sorry, but the reading of the legislation does not prescribe that. The intent isn't disclosed through the words that are used. It simply says you have to have the application approved by the minister. This is a board. This is an interim Wheat Board, which is supposed to be for farmers and by farmers, and yet even to the last minute he thinks that he—or she, whoever it might be at the time—needs to somehow have some control over an application. I need to voice my dissent with that.
My next question is to you, Mr. Phillips, with respect to the check-off you just spoke of. I've talked to a lot of farmers. A lot of farmers are concerned, of course, as you know—we all know that. There are some who want the board and some who don't. So let's not kid ourselves. Those who are concerned—apparently a majority—are worried that they're not going to get paid for their grain at the prices they have been receiving.
An example is the fact that the Alliance Grain Traders are opening up a pasta factory, and will probably be doing that because they expect to pay less for grain rather than more. Assuming that is the case, why on earth do you think farmers are going to check off any amount of money for research? They're currently checking off 50¢ a tonne for barley and 30¢ for wheat. I'm hearing from the farmers out there that they have no plans to check off for a long time, until they know that this is going to succeed. There's no guarantee of success, and we've now lost a vital source of income for valued research.