Thank you for the invitation to speak. I'll give a brief background of what Agricultural Adaptation Council is about and what happens when bureaucracy and red tape infringe on our abilities.
Gord Surgeoner, a director on the council since 2002, is also here; Angela Stiles is our executive director for 14 years; and I've been on the council for the past 10 years. It was founded in 1995 to allocate government funding by the industry, for the industry. We're a non-profit coalition of over 70 organizations from production agriculture, processors, retailers, and the science and technology innovation sector. We were created to help allocate government funds in the ag sector, and the industry we represent sits at the table and makes the decisions on the projects and applications that we have.
The adaptation council helps the government look at the rules and programs when they decide to create a new program. We've done that since 1995. Over that time, we've assisted in the funding of close to 2,500 projects amounting to more than $191 million in government funds, which has leveraged a total project budget of over $700 million.
One thing we do extremely well is handle the administration of agricultural programs. We aren't bureaucrats, so when there's money allocated to a program we try to see that all those dollars end up in the projects that the applicants bring forward. We work hard to be more effective, faster, and more efficient than any government program.
We're thrilled with the opportunity to partner with the government. We are true partners, and we fall under the accountability safety net of the Auditor General. We've been through countless audits, program reviews, and annual assessments. We've passed all of them with flying colours. We've been through audits from the federal government as well as the provincial government, and we haven't had anyone tell us that we're doing anything wrong.
I'll turn it over to Angela for the next part.