Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute released a report last week entitled “A National Agri-Food Water Action Plan”. One of its key takeaways was that “Canada has a fragmented and siloed model for water management. Data collection and reporting is far from standardized or complete.”
I appreciate AAFC's comments, Mr. Norris, on the importance of water. The challenges do exist when we shoo away water in the spring and we need it in the summer, so it's not necessarily regionally specific in that sense.
My question is to AAFC. Recognizing that it is so vital for farmers, for all types of agricultural producers and for the wet industries that are so important to rural communities, what is AAFC doing to actually develop programming that will aid farmers with drainage and with irrigation, and secondarily to aid food processors in those wet industries to make sure our communities have the necessary water and waste-water infrastructure so that we can continue to expand those industries?