Public Accounts committee  I can start on that. I think I referred to it earlier, Mr. Chairman. There is a two-step assessment process. It's triggered—that was the word I was looking for before—either by the federal government or by the provincial government, but most normally by another jurisdiction.

Public Accounts committee  We have to apply the criteria and decide whether we are going to have a specific initiative to respond to that particular situation.

Public Accounts committee  I will try to answer that question.

Public Accounts committee  We realize that the growers face immediate problems. That is why we try to have a certain level of interaction with each of these individuals in order to determine whether or not an existing program can be used to improve their situation. We attempt to find a way of immediately u

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, as I had referenced before, the earlier audit that had been referred to did raise questions of timeliness around two other business risk management programs: AgriStability and AgriInvest. I would say we've made significant progress and we are currently exceeding our

Public Accounts committee  Ultimately the minister is accountable to Parliament for what happens within his department, but we are also very accountable, as public servants, in terms of the effective delivery of programs that fall within our sphere of influence. Because agriculture is a shared jurisdiction

Public Accounts committee  Maybe I could just back up for a minute and simply say, Mr. Chairman, the AgriRecovery is not a program; it's a framework, and it can lead, depending on the results of an assessment process, to the establishment of a specific initiative to deal with a particular situation. I ca

Public Accounts committee  Many of the business risk management programs that we refer to: AgriStability, AgriInvest, AgriInsurance—those are actually federal-provincial programs in many—

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, perhaps I'll start and attempt to answer that question. In respect of the question that was asked as to whether or not the federal government...or to give the number of instances where the federal government would have instituted an AgriRecovery program, we'll come

Public Accounts committee  In terms of the measurement around timeliness, I think that, as was indicated by the audit report, there is room to improve. But in terms of timeliness, we're pleased to see that the Auditor General referred to our meeting our timeliness targets two-thirds of the time. Can we d

Public Accounts committee  Perhaps I can start and then turn it over to my colleague. Mr. Chairman, the comment that was just raised is absolutely correct: we do have performance indicators that are linked directly to the AgriRecovery program, and those include the percentage of effective producers who a

Public Accounts committee  In the context of moving forward with the implementation of the recommendations, as I attempted to indicate in my opening remarks, we are looking at the issue of timelines, and as I said before, because it's not something that falls exclusively within the purview of the federal g

Public Accounts committee  I was going to say that the federal government has a fairly significant role in negotiating the framework with provinces and territories concerning the principles and criteria used in the context of AgriRecovery. As I said previously, it's a shared program, and there is agreement

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, perhaps I can start and then turn it over to my colleague. I think the comment made relates very much to a previous question about whether or not we need different timelines for different types of events. I think as Rosser had indicated, that is part of the discus

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, since I have not had direct experience in the assessment process, perhaps I'll ask my colleague, Rosser, to answer that question.