Mr. Speaker, both of the member's questions are very pertinent.
When it comes to supply management he is not reading our policy statement properly. We have never said to destroy supply management. This government has moved from a quota to a tariff base that is designed to come down over the next little while that will destroy supply management. That is exactly true. That is the government's policy.
Our policy is let us get the rest of agriculture up to that level. There has to be some return on the investment. We are not seeing that in any other agricultural sector. Good for supply management. They figured out the formula and they are trying to make it work. Good for them.
We have never said to do away with the Canadian Wheat Board. We have said to make it optional. If it is good it will continue to function. It is saying it will fall apart if it does not have a monopoly. No monopoly anywhere lasts forever. People will rear up and say they have had enough and will not go to it.
We see far less acreage dedicated to the Canadian Wheat Board now than we ever have before. We only have to look at its annual report which just came out. It shows that sales are way down and administration costs have gone through the roof. The wheat board does not have the anticipated acreage coming from producers that it had before. People are voting with their feet and growing different crops. We are seeing all sorts of things being developed to try to obtain cashflow.
We are also seeing organic grains being held back by the wheat board because it wants to control them but does not want the responsibility of marketing. There are many niche crops from which the wheat board could back off and allow these folks to fulfil, such as the pearling markets, the specialized feed wheats and all those types of things that could be grown.
We know they can do that. I do not know a producer who would not sign a contract to be taken out of the wheat board for five years. Producers will sink or swim on their own. They are doing that now.