Agriculture Committee on March 4th, 2008

[Susie Miller]

Success is built on a number of things. One is the ability of the Canadian government to negotiate favourable terms. We certainly are spending a lot of effort, as we have since 2003. The second is then translating that into actual sales, which means going back into the market, re-establishing that reputation, that ability. The third is the transactions by the actual companies themselves.

I think you'll see the payoff several years down the road rather than immediately.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Thank you very much.

We go from the smallest amount to the largest amount. The majority of the funds are for the AgriInvest Kickstart program. Of course, this is a reaction to what the producers asked for and actually almost demanded: that we come up with something for them.

Can you explain to me, whoever is responsible, how—I know it's just beginning—that is working so far, what the uptake is, and that kind of thing?

[Nada Semaan]

So far, for the kickstart program, we have sent out a number—actually, well over 150,000—letters to producers telling them exactly what their share is for the first instalment of the kickstart.

We've already been receiving quite a bit of response, some requesting that the money be withdrawn, some requesting that it remain in the account, to save it for a rainy day or when they require it. There has been quite a bit of uptake, in terms of sending a response back. We asked them to respond to let us know what they wanted to do with it.

This was, as you said, very much demanded by the industry and in fact was created with them. Many times we had an industry-led task team that helped us define how the changes from CAIS to the new business risk management suite would come in and that then helped define these.

A lot of the parameters that were identified were basically taken from parameters that they wanted or that other governments also wanted changed from NISA to the new AgriInvest program.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

I understand that this is a very quick reaction on your part, and you're to be commended. I understand we have a rather impatient minister who needs to get these programs out quickly.

Of the 150,000, I guess it's too early to know how many people will take us up on these offers, but you said the reaction has been very positive already.

[Nada Semaan]

Absolutely. Everybody has been responding. Right now, we're putting the system in place to see how many people are asking for the money immediately and how many people are trying to keep it in. That is also very important, to find out how many are keeping it as an account versus the ones who are needing it right away to address their needs right now.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

I suppose, when you design programs that are virtually designed by the people who are going to use the programs, that may be why we got such a great uptake.

[Nada Semaan]

We had tremendous input from the industry, and the national CAIS committee was also very instrumental in providing us a lot of input.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

But you're not done receiving.... It's too early, really, to know how many.... You couldn't give me a percentage of how many of those 150,000 you think might....

[Nada Semaan]

Might...?

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Might take advantage of this program.

[Nada Semaan]

I would suspect all will take advantage of it, because basically, for the start program, the money basically is just up to them. All they had to do was agree that they would participate in AgriInvest. There is no reason not to, since for every dollar they put in the bank, they receive a federal dollar.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

That's a pretty good investment.

[Nada Semaan]

Or actually, I shouldn't say “federal”--a “government” dollar.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

How quickly will they be receiving that? How quickly can you turn that around?

[Nada Semaan]

We've started sending cheques out.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Really.

[Nada Semaan]

Basically, we sent out the letters at the end of December. By January we were receiving requests, and now cheques have started going out to those who requested them. For those who didn't, the money is still there for them.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Time has expired.

Mr. Atamanenko, the floor is yours.

[Alex Atamanenko, NDP, British Columbia Southern Interior, BC]

Thank you very much for taking time to be here to answer our questions.

I'd like to ask a question in regard to disaster relief, but I have a quick question on the Canadian farm families options program.

There are some people who have been hurt by the program. We're getting some letters, and we're trying to work with your officials to see if they can get some help. Is there still a way of helping some of these people who may have lost money on the program, or for one or another reason? Are you still open to looking at individual cases to see if we can help some people?

[Nada Semaan]

We are always open to looking, and there is an appeal process for producers as well, which would not stop. So, of course.

[Alex Atamanenko, NDP, British Columbia Southern Interior, BC]

Thank you.

The next question concerns the $62.6 million that's been earmarked for grant payments under the AgriRecovery disaster relief program. It's the program designed for producers affected by small or natural disasters but not those affected by cyclical events such as pricing downturns.

Can you give the committee a list of the smaller natural disasters that have occurred this year and that justify the injection of $62.6 million into the program between now and the end of the fiscal year? Are there some crops or products that have benefited more than others from this program in the current fiscal year, and which ones?

And as a supplement to this question, I'm just wondering where the minister's latest announcement—the modifications to AMPA that we all supported—fits in for the livestock and pork producers.

The overall concern I've had with disaster relief programs since I've been doing this is that often they're there but they don't seem to kick in quickly and there is always a back-and-forth between provinces and the federal government. So I'm just wondering how that's been streamlined and what you have in place to help out those who need it as quickly as we possibly can.

[Nada Semaan]

Thank you very much for the questions.

On the AgriRecovery program, a number of smaller disasters have actually happened over the past year. Some of that also includes cover crop. There is the cover crop protection program to help with excess flooding, excess moisture. This year we have integrated that with production insurance in terms of how it gets paid out.

Also, drought assistance was announced for areas of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario. As you know, the AgriRecovery program is a federal-provincial program as part of the suite, so it requires both federal and provincial agreement in terms of a response. So far, British Columbia has taken us up on that, and those payments went out for the drought relief in British Columbia, primarily to the livestock sector.

Also, out of the AgriRecovery program we were able to pay direct payments for the plum pox eradication program.

An additional amount of money went to the Quebec potato nematode producers who were affected by potato nematodes, and that also is there.

[Alex Atamanenko, NDP, British Columbia Southern Interior, BC]

May I interrupt, please? I don't have that much time.

[Nada Semaan]

Sure, absolutely.