Agriculture committee  Yes, it is.

Agriculture committee  Yes. Let's say you're a family and your income was $20,000, then you would get a $5,000 payment. If you're an individual and your income is $5,000, you would get a $10,000 payment to take you up to the $15,000 level. The maximum payment we'll make is $25,000 to a family or $15,000 to an individual.

Agriculture committee  The goal of the program is to help that farm family that is struggling because of their income levels--give them a breather and encourage them to think about what they may do. It's up to them, their choice, whether they want to look at the operation and do a real thorough assessment, or whether they do want to consider perhaps some other training for more off-farm income or set up an off-farm business.

Agriculture committee  That's correct. If there was incorrect information, for whatever reason, when the application was filled out, we would allow that to be corrected, but when you apply, whatever the Canada Revenue Agency has on file as your tax return, that's the return the program would use to calculate it.

Agriculture committee  A couple of us were involved in the design of the program, Michèle and I. Charlene joined the program as director on October 10.

Agriculture committee  It is a creation of this government. It was a commitment made in the action plan for agriculture that was approved by cabinet in June, I believe it was, so it is a brand new innovative program.

Agriculture committee  Out of the $550 million, $380 million will go to the income payment part of the program this year and next year. As I mentioned, we have that income support there for the pilot program for 2006 and then again in 2007. Then there's $126 million that will be used to provide the services--the farm business assessment, the professional consulting services to the applicants, as well as the Canadian agricultural skills services program that will be available to these participants.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's a pleasure to be here this morning to appear before the committee. I want to make a few comments. I'll try to keep them very brief. I think the committee members were provided with a package yesterday with some background to the program and details on it.