Agriculture committee  Yes, I agree completely. This is a negotiation that we cannot take for granted. Our interests must be defended.

Agriculture committee  Not at all. We all have a role to play.

Agriculture committee  No, I have not heard anything to that effect. Negotiations are going on, but we have not heard the current minister, or his predecessor, say that he will not sign. We have had many discussions with all political parties, including those who have been in power in the last three or four years.

Agriculture committee  I think what we have is the start of documents that we've looked at. I know CFA is engaged in a lot more technical discussions. You just had the federal–provincial–territorial meeting. People are dialoguing, but we haven't seen any final paper or how it's going to work exactly as a total package, because one affects the other.

Agriculture committee  In the case of dairy, we've also been working and investing directly in research for the last 10 or 15 years. We've created some networks in mastitis, CLA, and so on, and also the nutritional aspect of it. We did it in partnership with Agriculture Canada and the private industry out there.

Agriculture committee  I'm not aware of the Ontario criticism.

Agriculture committee  I don't think there's ever been a calculation made on what the total quota is worth. For example, in dairy, if you calculate the total value of the quota, it doesn't exist. If you calculate what a minuscule amount of quota is trading for on a monthly basis or on a yearly basis, we probably could get you that number fairly easily, because there is quota exchanged and so on.

Agriculture committee  Yes, I think that would be quite possible. As for the animal health work that has been done, we're quite pleased with where dairy is heading. There were a lot of comments made about this in the questions around the table. One thing I want to raise, though, is that from one commodity to the next...if it's avian flu, you have to isolate it, and you have to deal with it.

Agriculture committee  AgriFlex?

Agriculture committee  At this point, none of us have seen it.

Agriculture committee  When these programs, like flexibility, are developed SM5 is not necessarily.... Because we're under supply management, we're not consulted on all the fine details. It's a lot more the non-supply-management commodities that are looking for safety nets. And whenever they are finalized, that's when we're exposed to it a little bit.

Agriculture committee  We haven't discussed that at SM5 and we're not familiar with the details of it.

Agriculture committee  I don't think we're stating it that way. We're saying there seems to be, and it's not fully understood, a discrepancy between how supply management is treated versus other commodities when it comes to that, and that's what we're trying to find out.

Agriculture committee  For me, it's all about whether these programs are green or not green. I know how the U.S. is working some of their programs. I assume these programs are green programs because they're not interfering with the.... But how it's calculated inside the overall APF, I don't know. You have a lot of programs in the EU that are basically stating....

Agriculture committee  It is true that when the program is in effect, it is too late; it is always more difficult to make changes. The changes must be understood and accepted as fair before they go into effect.