Agriculture committee  Let me make a couple of points. One has been talked about already. There are some necessary conditions. Nothing will happen unless you have the conditions right. One is a level playing field. There is no question about that. You need a competitive price for skim solids, what we call ingredients, which is what I wanted to touch on when Bev raised the question.

Agriculture committee  Perhaps I could use that as a way to maybe raise another point. Alain talked about the importance of producers across the country and the industry being on the same page. It's a challenge. But challenges arise as a result of things that happen at the border. How do we respond and how do we deal with them?

Agriculture committee  You didn't have 100% of my attention, and I apologize for that, but based on what I did hear, Mr. Shipley, I think it is a fair statement, yes.

Agriculture committee  Well, nothing has changed. They made their ruling. It's not the—

Agriculture committee  It was a very narrow interpretation. Their question was on whether or not these butteroil-sugar blends are a substitute—

Agriculture committee  I'm not going to answer that question. I will make the comment, though, that the WTO has a set of rules, as does CETA, NAFTA, the TPP. Under the WTO there are provisions that allow a country to introduce a new tariff code. Under the regional agreements—NAFTA, CETA, TPP, when they come into force—there are no such provisions, so you're absolutely right.

Agriculture committee  Let me make one comment to begin with. There's a lot in common between what's being done in Ontario and nationally. We're not exactly the same, but everybody is headed for the same outcome. Just to reinforce Caroline's point, if we get the investment in technology, if we price the product competitively, we create the opportunity.

Agriculture committee  That's a great question. We focused a lot on one part of the solution, and it's a very important part of the solution, but the answer is in your question. No, we don't have the technology today, and that is part of the problem as I was referring to. It creates a level playing field and you get the government to address some of the things that it can [Technical difficulty—Editor] for the investment.

Agriculture committee  To be clear, they did create tariffs and a TRQ, but part of the NAFTA is no new tariffs, so they didn't apply to the United States and Mexico. The United States is a big source of imported product.

Agriculture committee  Let me begin by thanking you for the privilege and opportunity to make a presentation before the standing committee. My name, as you already know, is Peter Gould. I'm the chief executive officer for Dairy Farmers of Ontario. Dairy Farmers of Ontario represents 3,800 dairy farms that currently produce approximately 2.7 billion litres of milk annually.