Agriculture committee  This is the first time the program has been included in the main estimates. Over the next five years, the program will receive contributions in the amount of $5 million, or $1 million per year. The program was launched and announced in late winter. However, I would not be able to

Agriculture committee  No, not from my knowledge.

Agriculture committee  I can give you more detail right now. We haven't received any applications yet but we expect to be receiving them from the provinces sometime over the summer and those will be evaluated. We know the program has been launched and now we're seeking interest from the various provinc

Agriculture committee  Primarily this is in our science branch. In fact, under that umbrella there's a science cluster that touches a number of areas, from beef to canola. It's a partnership with the industry and sometimes the universities and our own research capacity internally. Basically it's to cre

Agriculture committee  Some of it could come from the associations. Basically, it's to create that partnership that can exist between the three levels.

Agriculture committee  It's a possibility. We have a research centre in Saint-Hyacinthe, for example, or in Guelph also, where they look at and work with the food industry.

Agriculture committee  These are cost-shared programs. Most of these programs are delivered by the provinces. The responsibility is in addition to the amount you voted in the main estimates, which was $225 million at the beginning of the year. Each province establishes program flexibility itself. Hav

Agriculture committee  Yes, it's transferred to all the provinces. This amount must be added—

Agriculture committee  There's a formula known as the Quebec formula. It was established several years ago, and it distributes the funding for these various programs among all the provinces. The same formula is used for the Canadian partnership program.

Agriculture committee  You're welcome.

Agriculture committee  Maybe I can explain the estimates.

Agriculture committee  The $250,000 that's coming back from Global Affairs Canada is an adjustment. At the beginning of the year, we sent about $4.9 million to Global Affairs Canada for staff located at missions abroad. We currently have about 35 employees at 20 different embassies or consulates around

Agriculture committee  May I have 30 seconds to explain the cost-shared programs?

Agriculture committee  I think it's important. In the current framework and in the future framework, most of the programs are cost-shared with the provinces. For every dollar going to the producer, 60¢ comes from the federal government and 40¢ from the provinces. Some of these programs are offered by

Agriculture committee  In the past, some GF2 programs didn't spend all their funds. So we reviewed all of our programs to ensure that the budgets we allocated to the various programs was spent in full or as much as possible. During phase 2 of the policy framework, some programs weren't used. So we lost