Thanks, Chair. I'll just add a few things to Mr. Shipley's comments.
For example, in my riding, I've noticed that egg farmers are particularly young, which is a good sign. Why is that? Is that industry targeting young farmers? Is there something that makes egg farming much more attractive to youth? Is there something we can encourage?
As well, taking a look internationally might be interesting too, because I don't think this problem is common only in Canada. Certainly, I think that seeing what types of initiatives other countries have taken to encourage youth involvement in farming would be helpful to the committee.
I'll mention one other case that I'm thinking of, which is dairy farmers. I believe that for the dairy farmers in Ontario, quota is a barrier. The price of quota is a barrier to young farmers getting involved in dairy farming. The Dairy Farmers of Ontario have initiated a program whereby they choose 10 young farmers, I think, and they put in place a process by which young farmers borrow quota--they have a certain amount of time to pay it back--so that they can ease into dairy farming.
I think it would be useful if the committee knew of these types of initiatives in each of the different commodities. Are they successful? Are they not successful? Are there government initiatives to enhance these initiatives that might be taken by industry?