We think that the importance of this work is significant for the people of Canada to really understand that the fur trade is still very much alive and well, that there are people living off the land and that there are, as Ms. Daigneault mentioned, trappers around the world who are not able to provide their furs, who are trapping but not able to gain benefit.
In Europe, I've travelled around extensively, and in Ireland, Holland, France, the U.K., Sweden, Ukraine, and other countries they are actually trapping animals at an industrial rate, which are either thrown in the nearest ditch or incinerated at government facilities. When it's said that trapping doesn't need to occur, you just need to tell that to the Queen of the Netherlands, where they trap 200,000 to 300,000 muskrat every year, and have done so for decades at a cost of about $100 a muskrat, and then institutionally incinerate them. They do this for control of the population. France has 200,000 trappers; they don't sell one pelt. In Spain and Ireland—I was there—they're trapping red fox and mink and just throwing them in the ditch and don't even know their value. They have lost the sense that these animals have value. In Canada, we have maintained that value and people are living on the land.
I've also seen and worked with the trapping standards and people around the world, and we have without question the highest standards here and the highest regulatory system to set regulations to enforce them, to track it. We think what we have here is without question the best system in the world to actually be proactive, recognize what's going on, and do it better. For this committee to really look at that and understand it better, I think, is extremely significant for yourselves and for the people of Canada.