Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to thank you for your presence here at the committee and for answering our questions. The departmental performance report from this year show a gap of about 645 full-time employees from what was originally planned for the department, making it a total reduction of about 1,200 employees since 2011.
There was also a budgeted amount of $63 million that wasn't spent. AAFC has closed several research stations across the country, including cereal research in Winnipeg, and farm rehabilitation offices in nine locations across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.
Can you explain the impact of these cuts? I think 1,200 employees is a lot and that this could negatively impact research across the country.