Thank you.
Thanks to all of you for being here. I'd like to first of all thank you folks at NFU for this report. I think it's very clear. It makes me understand the industry a bit better. I think it bears strict and critical analysis by government, perhaps in consultation with your organization and the Cattlemen's Association.
I would like to see us move forward. We've been back and forth on this issue since I've been elected. Everybody has good intentions. Whether it's the minister, whether it's members around this table, we all seem to react, but we don't seem to have moved very far. I think this report may be a key to start looking at this. I would like to submit that now is the time for our government to do something in cooperation with all of us, and I'd like to encourage that.
I have one question for each of you, and I'll try to be very brief to give every one of you a chance to respond. I'll ask the questions first and we'll come back to the answers.
Ms. Haley, you mentioned that the federal government must take a stand. I'd like to find out from you what specifically you'd like the federal government to do.
Bill, thanks for attending our food security tour in Stratford. You talked about collective marketing and independence. You mentioned--and I'll never forget--that the rancher is only independent until the end of his driveway. You said it again today. You talked about collective marketing. Can supply management work in the cattle sector? This is a question that people don't want to touch, but can it work?
Ed, what if we're not able to successfully challenge COOL? What if we're not able to do that? What if this continues for two or three years as we do the process and we try to challenge it? What's the answer to keeping our beef industry alive?
Mr. Rosing, I guess this question is in the same vein. You talked about two choices: restore the value-added meat industry with its domestic consumption only or export the beef. It's my understanding that Ontario, for example, imports most of its beef from the United States for consumption, whereas western Canada exports something like 60% of it, and it goes back and forth. I'm not sure of the statistics. Is it maybe time now to look at encouraging more domestic consumption? If so, how can we do that?
My last question is to you folks, Grant and Fred. Of all these recommendations, if we could sit down tomorrow and start implementing them, which would be the two or three you would recommend that we do immediately?
Having said that, maybe we can start with Ms. Haley, please.