Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Stewart.
The charts you outline tell a heck of a story of financial tragedy. Growing the Island Way, the report of the Commission on the Future of Agriculture and Agri-food on Prince Edward Island, looked at realized net farm income on Prince Edward Island in gross dollars from 1929 to now—and I think you've seen that, Stewart—but the chart in here is in decline and now it's in negative territory.
You go to some length in your brief...and I'd like you to comment on that. When I look at the situation across the country, with debt increasing now at $58 billion to $60 billion, farmers are in a position where, even with low interest rates, I don't know how we're ever going to get out of that debt. But when you look at the supply management industry, you know where you're going to be in terms of pricing, you can meet with your banker, you can cashflow your operation, and you can clearly show that you can manage your debt, pay your bills, and provide for your family and your community.
So that's certainly one of the benefits of the system, the stability that's there, and we strongly support it.
You opened by saying the most important reason, in terms of our discussion on maintaining supply management in Canada, is understanding the underlying reason we have it. Can you expand on that? Is it a question of income security for farmers? Is it a question of food security and food safety for the country? What's the bottom line here? What do we need to be arguing internationally?
I think one of our failings internationally is that we've failed to tell other countries or get other countries to implement a similar system to ours so they do gain a better understanding of the system.