That is a very important question. When we imposed these sanctions, we looked very carefully at whether we were vulnerable to reciprocal actions on the part of Russia.
Canada does not use Russia as a particularly significant trading partner, but there were some impacts. For example, a very significant impact is that Russia is a source of much of the nitrogen fertilizer essential to Canadian agriculture and farmers across this country. The sanctions that were imposed had an impact on the availability and the cost of that much-needed fertilizer. I know this is an issue that Agriculture Canada is very much seized with and is working on in order to provide support and assistance to our farmers impacted by that measure.
We're obviously seeing, as a result of the sanctions—not just imposed by Canada, but imposed globally, particularly among Europeans—a very significant impact on supply chains and, in particular, around energy products such as petroleum and liquid natural gas. The impact is most severely felt in Europe, but it's having a reciprocal impact here. We're seeing impacts on the supply chains here and in the cost of gasoline for Canadian consumers.
Those are all issues of significant concern to this committee and to all Canadians, that we all, unfortunately, have to pay a bit of a price for our response to Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, but our support for the people of Ukraine is unwavering and we have joined a global effort in order to respond with these sanctions
I believe that the sanctions are quite impactful on Russia. They are often motivated by the profits they make from their trade, in particular in gasoline and liquid natural gas. Those sanctions, I believe, will have a detrimental effect on them.