Je vous remercie d'être venus. Thank you for being here.
We have this table in front of us that compares average fertilizer and fuel prices between Ontario and Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana for June 2007. If we look at potash, we see that Ontario farmers paid $384.48, whereas in the three American states during that period of time they paid $318.59. In other words, we paid 20.7% more.
In Canada we don't really have a national energy policy. We export natural gas and oil to the United States primarily, but at the same time we pay more at the gas pump for gas. Our prices for natural gas are probably not drastically lower than what people pay south of us. So as a result of the lack of an energy policy.... Our policy has to supply our energy to our neighbour to the south, and we've locked it in with NAFTA. There's all that argument.
We produce potash, and we'll take potash as an example. Our farmers are paying more for it in Canada. We're exporting it to the United States and other places in the world, and we've seen that the testimony has been that one of the reasons for the increase in prices is because of the global demand; the market is regulating the increase in prices.
We're a government committee. You're here because you're hoping that we take some kind of action. Should government be doing something to have a national policy in regard to agriculture that actually tries to, if possible--and I know it's a word that many people don't like to use--regulate the cost of input for our primary producers so that we don't get this bizarre situation where we produce something and our farmers are paid more than their competitors who pay less, who are probably getting more subsidies than we are?
So that's my question, and I'd like to hear some response from you on that. Anybody, please.