Thank you very much, Alaina. I appreciate your question. Being a dairy farmer before I came here, it's certainly important to me.
I'm very pleased that the Government of Canada and I had the privilege to announce $350 million. This was done after consultation with farmers right across the country. What we did over the last number of months was to meet with agricultural groups and dairy processors from right across the country. With these consultations, we came up with this package. It's $350 million, and what the industry felt needed to take place in general was innovation and to make sure they were ready when CETA comes into play, and also to modernize the manufacturing sector, the processing sector, and the dairy industry overall. The $250 million over five years to help dairy farmers innovate is, in my view, a great package.
Now, we have to sit down again with the dairy farmers and decide just how this package will be implemented, but I'm sure it will be a great asset. Having been involved in agricultural programs years ago, I understand exactly what an asset these can be for the dairy producer. What it will mean is they'll produce, hopefully, more milk for less money. That's what we have to be able to do.
On the processing side, I have to say that the farm side was interested in the processing side too. They understand how important it is that the processors are able to deal with this issue. The $100 million over four years for the dairy processors was well received. As we know, there will be allocations of cheeses allowed into this country. This will allow our processors to innovate and be able to produce high-quality cheeses themselves. Of course, I have great faith, as I'm sure the whole committee does, in our processing sector, and in general the supply management sector.
Anyhow, what we have to make sure of is that all sides of the supply management sector, specifically in the dairy industry, remain strong, and with this $100 million, it will allow the processors to invest more into their operations and be able to produce different products that will be for sale.
We have to realize, too, that with CETA, the 700 million people in Europe are available. They are customers for us too, overall. I think we have a pretty aggressive processing sector that will probably become more aggressive and, hopefully, more beneficial to the dairy industry. It just means more money for the dairy farmer and more money for the processor, which means a better economy.