Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the panellists for your presentations, all of you.
My dad had a saying. I came from a farm background, and he said if you look after the land, it'll look after you. I go beyond that. I don't think that's good enough anymore, because consumers are demanding good products, good-quality products, and the best products. I have always stated, and stated earlier today, that we have the healthiest food in the world, and I believe we do.
There's a big expanse here in the types of countries we're dealing with across the trade agreement. The Trans-Pacific Partnership are more developed countries, but some of them aren't as developed as others. I would say, and I think it's pretty much agreed from some of your presentations this morning, that we have some of the best labour standards and some of the best quality in the world. If we're number one, somebody has to be number 12 in the 12-party agreement. Can you tell me whether you think it's a good thing that we are number one?
I hear the concern about the types of jobs and types of workers. I've always felt we're better off to have more processing and to have more jobs. Overall, we have to make sure that they're quality and that the people are looked after, but we're better off. I think we can all agree that if there's more processing, there are more jobs, and it creates a better standard of living for Canadians. Can we help bring that up with the other 11 countries, and that includes our neighbours to the south?