Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Minister, for appearing before us today.
Minister, I've heard from many farmers in my riding. They're having difficulties with some of the audits that are being done. A farmer's greatest fear right now is not the weather; a fruit and vegetable farmer's greatest fear right now is an audit by the integrity branch.
I have heard some examples from different farmers, one being a phone call at 7:45 in the morning telling her she had to talk to this auditor right then, and if she didn't, then she could fail her audit. An hour and a half was spent on the phone, and numerous photos and videos.... Of course, we want to make sure that the quarantine is safe and is following the health guidelines.
I have another example of a farmer, a pregnant woman, who was asked to go into a quarantine bunkhouse with quarantined people in there to carry out the audit and provide photos and videos to the auditor that the social distancing was happening.
I'm just wondering, Minister, what the guidelines are for these auditors when they're carrying out these audits. Showing very little kindness and compassion in some of these instances is not going very far.
Can you give us an idea of how many audits are happening and what the direction is on them?