Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate it.
Mr. Winston Gereluk, you mentioned the labour issues in Ukraine, and your points are taken. However, if you refer to the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement, we have a chapter—chapter 13, I think—on labour. Both Canada and Ukraine will reaffirm our commitment to the International Labour Organization and we accept the principles on the rights of workers adopted by the ILO.
Specifically, we have considered all the aspects related to labour, whether it's the abolition of child labour, the abolition of forced or compulsory labour, the elimination of discrimination, or the minimum employment standards that we have to accept, such as minimum wages, overtime pay and obviously the issues related to occupational injuries, illnesses, etc. Those things have been considered in the current agreement.
However, there is always scope for improvement. I agree. If you have anything specific that you feel is left out of the current agreement and that we can consider in the modernization of the agreement, please let us know. The time is limited, though, for you to go into that. If possible, I'll come back to you, but please provide in writing all the shortcomings you see or, rather than the shortcomings, the things that can be considered in modernizing the agreement.
Mr. Bouchard, I really appreciate the anguish of the problem you're facing. Canada is a trading nation. I came from a private sector company into politics. We don't have the luxury to trade only with other countries that are as good as Canada. For us to survive—as private companies and as a country—we have to trade with almost everybody. We have to trade with non-democratic countries where authoritarianism is the rule, and sometimes we have to deal with countries that are not—that are corrupt, to put it very simply. However, we need to have trade going on, and I appreciate the problem you have.
Respectfully, I have to disagree with the statement by one of the witnesses that if you want to do business, you have a price to pay. That was the implication of the statement by one of the witnesses. Respectfully, I disagree. Whenever we have free trade agreements with several countries, the sectors affected by that agreement are compensated by the Government of Canada. I hope there is some mechanism by which we can look into the issues faced by the countries that are being affected by the sanctions.
Mr. Clayton Kotylak, as we know, Russia and Ukraine are both exporters of wheat. I think Russia exported close to 13 million tonnes and Ukraine about 20 million or 25 million tonnes, and obviously Canada is a big exporter of wheat. With wheat being a food commodity that is very important for everybody in the world, this is going to have an impact: The sanctions on Russia and the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia will affect the trade in wheat, and Canada is one of the major exporters.
My question is, what is the world capacity to grow wheat? Or, rather, what is the capacity utilization? Are we growing wheat to the maximum capacity that is available, or is there is further potential available for us to grow and export?