Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Sobrino, for the presentation. I guess you understand that the reason we've asked you to come here today is to explain some of the operations of the General Standards Board. It seems to those of us around this table that it's an organization that's been flying under the radar with very little scrutiny or oversight by any parliamentary committee for possibly many years—maybe ever.
I suppose, to put all of our cards on the table, there was a concern that there may be a duplication going on here, that this work may be being done effectively elsewhere by the Canadian Standards Association or whoever else manages these things. I guess your job here today will be to defend why the Government of Canada needs their own standards oversight organization.
I was interested to hear about the broad range of things the standards board is involved in. The designation of what can be labelled organic produce is something of great interest to Canadians, more and more. As they go to the grocery store and look to buy organic produce, can they really trust the label when it says this? If that's the type of thing the organization is involved with, then it seems to me, given the budget we're seeing, we're getting a real bargain. If we have 30 people looking for the best interests of Canadian consumers for a total price, after cost recovery, of $1.2 million.... That hardly makes up staff.
I notice that the budget is roughly $3 million, but the net cost is only $1.2 million. Where does the cost recovery come from? What kind of fees do you charge for this service—to the private sector, I imagine?