Thank you so much for your presentations.
A couple of themes came through.
There are some serious gaps between the TPP and what is needed in communities here in Nova Scotia and across Canada in terms of supports, not just for agriculture but across every other sector as well. We've heard that consistently.
The other thing is the perception that we can't be or aren't trading in TPP countries. We're 97% tariff-free with TPP countries already. This 3% is the gap we're looking at. There's a very serious price to pay for dropping the tariffs on that 3%. Essentially, in terms of farming, we've pitted beef and pork farmers against dairy farmers. It's is a horrible situation for us to see playing out in Canada, which has the best agriculture in the world, as far as I'm concerned.
Another thing is the money. An economic impact study came out a few weeks ago from the government. It predicts that we'll see 0.127% GDP growth by the year 2040. That would represent $4.3 billion. Ironically, that's the exact same amount that's promised to supply management in the first 15 years of CETA and the TPP. It's essentially cancelling it out.
This isn't the finance committee, but I think we can do the numbers and say that at the end of the day we won't end up seeing the benefit in Canada. Potentially we need to look at other markets, such as Japan, as we've heard here.
Mr. van den Heuvel and Mr. Oulton, in New Brunswick we heard a prediction that half of all the Atlantic dairy farms would be wiped out with the TPP. I'm wondering if you could speak in terms of Nova Scotia as to what the impact would be on the supply-managed sectors if they aren't compensated. If that money doesn't come forward, what would that look like in Nova Scotia for supply management?