Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, gentlemen. Thank you for having accepted the invitation to appear before us today to discuss agriculture and supply management in particular. I am very interested in this issue because I am a dairy producer from Rimouski, in the Lower St. Lawrence area. My brother and I run a farm, and we have one employee. For a small business in a rural area like mine, this is very important. My brother and I are still able to work in agriculture today, as dairy producers, because of supply management; that is very clear. If this model had not been invented, it is very likely that my farm, which is situated very far from markets, would no longer be in business today. That is the case for my farm and for those of several of my dairy producer colleagues, particularly in the region.
I'm on the front lines, and you are at the opposite extreme. Every time you have the opportunity to negotiate on our behalf, I hope that you think of the farmers who, like myself, are very interested in supply management because it is a survival issue.
We have been discussing the Doha Round since 2001. It is slow, it is time—consuming, it has gone on for too long. How do you explain the fact that there has been so little progress since then, particularly for the recognition of the specific character of supply management for Canada in the Doha Round negotiations?