Sure. As you well know, the BRM programs and the whole suite of programs are shared between the federal government, at 60%, and the provinces and territories at 40%, so we work together. As we're developing the new programs, we include industry as well to ask what worked and what didn't work and what it is that industry sees changing. As you well know, Mr. Hoback, agriculture has changed drastically in the last decade, in the last five years, and it's doing that as we roll forward, so we want to make sure we're capturing the potential of change as well.
The provinces and territories are always asking for more flexibility. We understand that. The vast majority of the programs are now delivered at the provincial or territorial level. Right now, only the Manitoba and Atlantic region programs are delivered by a federal government entity. The other provinces have taken up the challenge to deliver their own programs, and if Manitoba should want to take over its own, we would certainly consider that to try to shorten the time lag and make sure that farmers have the bankability, predictability, and timeliness they require.
Our time on delivering the programs is getting better. The forms to fill out to come in are getting smaller, and farmers are getting better at doing that. Having said that, the best backstop is a good solid market, and we've been fortunate in the last little while to have had that, with the exception of the flooded areas and some crop insurance issues and so on. The programs have responded well. They are demand-based programs.
The AgriRecovery line item is $125 million. Last year, we were in the $450 million range. It's a demand-based program, so don't let it scare you when you see a bigger number. Or when you see the number smaller, it means it wasn't demanded that year. We'll see those fluctuations on a year-by-year basis.
We are working towards being less reactive and more proactive in the next round of programming discussions. We've had two rounds with industry and have multiple rounds with the provinces and territories working through. I've been meeting with some of my provincial colleagues. The ministers from Saskatchewan and Alberta were here the other day. As well as doing a great announcement on Bill C-18, we also talked about the new generation of programs. Yesterday, when I was in Winnipeg, I met Stan Struthers. We spent about an hour talking about the new programs and working our way forward to make sure we serve farmers in a more fulsome way.
It's an interesting exercise. Farmers want to make their money from the marketplace, not the mailbox. We get that. We're not going to send money out just to send money out. We're going to make sure that what we do is strategic. We're going to help commercialize and develop. We need new varieties of wheat. The Wheat Board has been sitting on a CPS utility wheat, a red, that will yield a hundred bushels an acre and is as valuable as most of the milling wheats.
Those are the types of transitions that we're working towards: making sure there's a lot more research and innovation, and making sure those types of things have the ability to get commercialized.