Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  Thanks for the question. I'm going to approach that from a slightly different tack. There was—I don't think there is any longer—a small bureau inside the policy directorate of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, called the farm women's bureau. I'm a personal friend of one of the people who worked there.

Agriculture committee  They received no money, and they've been told that because it's policy driven they don't want to go there anymore, and if it's research driven, they don't want to go there anymore.

Agriculture committee  Thanks for the question, Alex. It's a huge kettle of fish, it really is, and it's a complex business, but at the same time, I think our federal government, along with our farm leaders, have to take the blinkers of naiveté off. When we have a negotiator sitting around an international table at an international forum, we have to come out as strongly as possible to defend our producers, to defend our farm families across the country who are trying to supply food to local markets and balance that with the export markets.

Agriculture committee  I would urge you, almost implore you, to read this. It's difficult reading, because they do go through the process and they go through the fear that Canadian farm women have, not only for their future but for their children's, and not only for their children but for their community.

Agriculture committee  You have these?

Agriculture committee  It has to be translated. Okay.

Agriculture committee  Sure. I can do that.

Agriculture committee  I guess I'm going to change the tone a little bit and go back to something that Maria Smith said. Maria was the young lady with the P.E.I. Young Farmers' Association. She reminds me of myself 20 years ago, when I married into a fifth-generation family farm. In the 20 years gone by, I've raised five children on that farm, three of whom are in university, and two of whom are graduating within the next weeks with massive debts—$40,000 or $50,000—which they know they alone have to pay back because there's no extra money on their mom and dad's farm to look after any of that educational debt.

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Joy. I want to allow Ms. Deschamps to know that this is the executive summary of the big blue book that Hedy held up. I have copies here. To summarize, I haven't painted a very positive picture of where Canadian agriculture is going, but that's not to say it can't change.

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Ms. Deschamps. Yes, of the five children, I have a 20-year-old living at home and a 10-year-old. The 20-year-old, a daughter, is the one who would like to take over. Of the five children, I'd have to admit she's the last one I would have thought would return to the farm and want to take it over, but she knows the financial realities and she knows that she has to continue with her education, and she knows that she will have to work off of the farm.

Status of Women committee  Three numbers, Joy. In terms of the Canadian Wheat Board barley vote that was put out to the western grain farmers, 14%, Hedy, voted for the open market. Really, we're the growers and buyers--

Status of Women committee  Fourteen per cent voted in favour of a complete open market. The other 86% voted for a combination of either keeping the single-desk selling--that is, keeping the status quo, keeping the Canadian Wheat Board--and the other portion bought into the misinformation campaign and the manipulation--

Status of Women committee  We've had zero return from the marketplace, Joy.

Status of Women committee  The connection that I would make, Joy and Hedy and Nicole, is that the power in the marketplace comes from collective activity. We've seen that in the corporatization of the industry. We've seen that in the concentration of the grain handling industry. If it works for corporations and grain handlers to work collectively and to work in an organized fashion, it works for farmers too.