Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I thank you folks for your remarks.
I'm from rural Canada, and I can't help but think about how folks must feel who have cancer or have family members with cancer. They must be worried about what might happen over the next several months.
In listening to you folks, it seems to me that it's likely that supplies are going to get worse before they get better. I chalk this up to government inaction, especially in the MAPLEs project.
Mr. West, you said that Europe looks after Europe, and in North America there's a different supply chain stream. That worries me. This is not normally my committee. I deal in the agriculture arena mainly. We're the boy scouts of the world, and we continue to supply the United States, even sometimes when we probably shouldn't, especially when it comes to oil. They're very quick to cut us off for any reason at all.
If there's a shortage in North America, what's the chance that we wouldn't be supplied on a proportional basis from the United States? What's the chance of that, and why is it? Is it a result of the private health care system in the United States and the supply chains there? We have to look at this issue and deal with it.