Agriculture committee  Yes, I have a tiny point in response to the last question. The committee might want to invite the Canadian National Millers Association to appear. They're probably already on your list, but they would be good people to talk to on this issue.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I understand your question, or your proposition, you're sort of leading down the path of provincially run collective marketing agencies on behalf of the producers, and what you're doing is starting to go down that continuum of more and more and more sellers.

Agriculture committee  No, I didn't know who the question was to. But if I can respond, I don't actually think the conditions have changed very much. We produce so much grain in western Canada that most of it always has to be exported offshore. That was the case in the early 1900s, in the 1920s. A lot of our production then went to Great Britain, but it still went overseas.

Agriculture committee  I agree that the answer is no. It's on the official record. If we look back in history to the central selling agency, to the voluntary wheat boards that have gone before, human nature being what it is, people will deliver to the board when they see the price falling, and they will try to go outside the board and sell to some other market when they see the price rising.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The National Farmers Union thanks the committee for the opportunity to be here today to speak with the standing committee. I have two recommendations that I'd like to put before the committee, and then another point I'd like to make if time allows. The first recommendation we would put forward is that the standing committee use all means available to investigate the events that led to changes being announced by the Minister of Agriculture to the Canadian Wheat Board director elections halfway through the election process.