Thank you, Chair.
I'd like to thank the witnesses for their presentations today on the next agricultural framework.
Mr. Vandervalk and Madam Hansen, you were talking about the importance of trade agreements. Canada exports a lot. Recently we had the Minister of Agriculture before the committee, and we were all tasked to study the supplementary estimates. I'm sure you're well aware that we have the market access secretariat, and that does an extraordinary job of coordination. It works with CFIA and Global Affairs. Their priorities are to reopen, maintain, and expand international markets, use the Canadian brand to market food products, fill market intelligence needs, and leverage the agriculture and agri-food trade commissioner service. The secretariat does a really important job, but we found out that the government is cutting money to the market access secretariat by $22.9 million in the next year.
Could you talk to us about the importance of the work that is done by the federal government internationally, and the importance of revisiting funding to make sure they're getting the funds necessary to do the job, to support Canadian agriculture?