Thank you.
The last two items I'd briefly like to speak to involve agricultural investments. This is speaking to the continued increase of requirements placed on producers because of climate change and trends in retail food markets that have posed increased investment requirements on farm operations without an associated premium in the market.
On this note we'd like to see changes to the AgriInvest program, which are laid out in your brief, that would facilitate more on-farm investment, as well as an increased emphasis on rural infrastructure spending in the new government's commitments.
The final piece I'd like to briefly touch on is the duty relief program. The duty relief and drawbacks program administered by CBSA was not designed for agricultural goods and does not provide adequate safeguards to address the potential diversion into the domestic market when dairy, poultry, and egg products are imported into Canada for further processing and subsequent re-exportation.
What we would like to ask is that dairy, poultry, and egg products be excluded from the duty relief and drawbacks program by making an exception similar to the one that exists for fuel and plant equipment. This exclusion should be included in the budget to ensure its timely implementation. It would solve inconsistencies where participants evicted from Global Affairs Canada's import to re-export program for not respecting the rules are allowed to apply under the duty relief and drawbacks program.
Thank you.