Thank you. I appreciate the question.
It's difficult to estimate the impact thus far. We still hope to work with the provincial government to develop a provincial.... We're still working on that. We became subject to the federal backstop only this past July, so we're still coming to terms with what that's doing to the cost of inputs.
With regard to transportation, we produce about 2.5 billion pounds of potatoes. That's about 40,000 truckloads to get over the Confederation Bridge. It's a substantial cost. We do see subsidies for other bridge infrastructure in Canada: $200 million for the Champlain bridge to keep that toll-free. Any investment in reducing tolls will allow us to be more competitive in a regulatory regime where carbon has a price on it.
The cost of inputs has increased dramatically, and certainly this year with the cost of diesel fuel. We did see a spike in the cost of fertilizers. In the east coast, our fertilizers come from overseas. Historically, it's been easier for us to access them from Europe and Asia rather than accessing Canadian fertilizer, because of the issues with logistics. We've seen a significant spike. The cost of production for an acre of potatoes is probably up by close to 40%, and it's had a dramatic impact on the bottom line.
In the meantime, we've experienced significant regulatory impact from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. We have been under a ministerial order keeping not just seed potatoes but other crops from leaving Prince Edward Island. Taken with the impact of the carbon price, which.... We are seeing continued exemptions, but those are stalled in the Senate. We want to see those get pushed through, but all of that—the cost of transport, the impact of CFIA and the impact of the carbon price—lead to a significant increase in the cost of production.