Agriculture committee  Like you, we're hearing a lot of questions and we are looking into it right now. We haven't done a full assessment of what the total impact will be, but what does it mean for transition and succession planning? That's the biggest concern we're hearing about with this announcement.

Agriculture committee  Certainly the partnership is not an easy one to come up with, because you're dealing with provincial and federal ministers of agriculture in different regions. Coming to a consensus on that at times can be difficult, but I think if the provinces are allowed to have a little more flexibility—they have some now, but more flexibility—on how they implement risk management programs within their jurisdictions, that would make them much more effective regionally.

Agriculture committee  Yes, and thank you for offering up an opportunity to speak to that. We absolutely would be happy to submit to the committee some recommendations and comments on it. Also, as you heard earlier, Sukhpaul is part of NPAC as well, and he's very engaged with the British Columbia Agriculture Council and is a member of that organization.

Agriculture committee  I believe the government needs to take a much more holistic look at how we react to the need for business risk management programs. We were happy to see the increase in funding last year in the SCAP program, but it's a decimal point on a rounding error. To actually have an effect, really what we need is a different program, a stand-alone program.

Agriculture committee  I'll start off with a shameless plug. There's a certain bill known as Bill C-359 that, if it went through the House, would certainly expedite access to a lot of inputs and tools. The government can take a holistic view of that and how we expedite access to the tools we need going forward to get them into the farmers' hands more quickly.

Agriculture committee  We didn't get a lot of heads-up on that announcement. Certainly, we've been working very closely with the CPMA on this issue. We're trying to figure out the problem we're trying to solve here, because the amount of plastic we're talking about is so small, yet the impact is so huge.

Agriculture committee  No, not at this point. We have to understand that agriculture producers are large users of all products, all inputs, including energy. Especially when we live in a northern climate where we require a lot of heat, large volumes of propane and natural gas in particular are used. I don't think the government has any intention of rebating the amount of carbon tax that we're paying, much as what Mr.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee, for having us here today. We appreciate the time. As most of you know, I'm Keith Currie, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. I'll be sharing my time today, as you mentioned, with Sukhpaul Bal, who's a farmer in the Okanagan Valley.

Agriculture committee  It's a very complex subject matter. We've heard comments already this morning about international trade deals and carbon pricing, and it's true that carbon border adjustments are going to become a real thing very shortly. Those conversations are happening all the time around trade deals.

Agriculture committee  I think what's very frustrating, from my perspective, is that nobody comes and talks to us before they put policies in place. It's not that farmers don't want to do the right thing or get to the right place in climate discussions or on carbon pricing, but we're never given the opportunity to have meaningful input or work with the government of the day to create the right regulatory framework, where we accomplish the ability to put an effective pricing on carbon without hurting the farmer.

Agriculture committee  As you mentioned, the single biggest cost we have around, in particular, our heating fuels is the carbon tax. One of our board members, who resides just outside Ottawa here—and I think many of you have probably heard from him—operates Carleton Mushroom. He's going to be paying $450,000 just in carbon tax alone next year.

Agriculture committee  Most of our farmers don't have direct contact with the end retailer. It's more prevalent in the horticulture sector in particular, where there may be some direct contracting with the big grocers, so to speak. From time to time they will be affected if all of a sudden the contract that was signed isn't honoured—somebody offers them less money or they drive to the next laneway.

Agriculture committee  Is that good? Okay.

Agriculture committee  I'll make a couple of comments. Then I'll turn it over to my colleague Scott, who is online. Scott knows intimately the process of the grocery code of conduct's development. Certainly, what we're looking for is integrity in the system to make sure that people are playing fairly.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm very pleased to be back in front of the committee today. I'm seeing some very familiar faces. For those of you who do not know me, as the chair mentioned in his opening remarks, I am Keith Currie and I am the president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.