As you may be aware, tomorrow will mark the first virtual session of the annual meeting of federal, provincial and territorial ministers of agriculture and agri-food.
The issue of labour is on the agenda for that meeting tomorrow. In fact, as the member pointed out, labour is a key issue for the agricultural sector as well as for the food processing sector. I believe you will hear later this afternoon from representatives from the Food, Health and Consumer Products of Canada. The number of labour vacancies in the processing sector is quite significant, with 28,000 jobs remaining vacant. When you compare that with the 290,000 jobs figure I indicated in my opening remarks, it is quite significant.
This is why we are working closely with our colleagues at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada as well as Employment and Skills Development Canada, who lead on several of the labour issues. We're working closely with them and the provinces to make sure that we can do our utmost in addressing these very significant challenges in labour in the agriculture and agri-food sector, as the member pointed out.