Agriculture committee  I don't know if this will provide you with the complete answer, but with property assets, the value is relative to the next best alternative. So it's partly opportunity costs that capitalize. In Saskatchewan we have varying pressures that compete for farmland, besides farmers. We have conservation programs, for example, and I'll speak specifically about Saskatchewan.

Agriculture committee  This is why. You have other alternatives competing for that farmland and driving up the value of it. We see that here every day. If the competition were purely between producers, you wouldn't see that value. I pick on conservation organizations because that's our experience, but as soon as you have something else--and it doesn't matter if it's that or a company that wants to buy a parcel of land to build an ethanol plant and they have some capital--as soon as something competes for land, farmland values compete with that price every day.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. Just to be clear, your question is really more about, why aren't we looking for better access in other countries? Is that accurate?

Agriculture committee  I wouldn't disagree at all with that. The way our supply managed system works is that it reduces our supply here, of course, but it also restricts the ability of suppliers to expand supply for export into other countries. So for us to be successful, we need to maintain those restrictions very, very carefully.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to come back to Ken's comments about adding more value at home. I believe that is accurate, but we will always play on the international stage as well to a certain degree. But if we come back to the notion of having an attitude to win if we're going to go to WTO and negotiate--and I agree with Mr.

Agriculture committee  It will be short. I will address that in line with the same comments I made earlier. As Mr. Wildeman said, at the Uruguay Round we did a lot of negotiation, and when we came home we got rid of everything we agreed to the day we came home. Other countries retained their ability to subsidize, and we are still fighting with that.