Madam Speaker, I am proud to say that when I first came to Ottawa I was asked which committees I wanted to sit on, and I asked to sit on the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food to represent my constituents of Kitchener—Conestoga, which has a large agriculture sector. I was given the honour to sit on that committee.
I have to say that there has been amazing co-operation across party lines. It seems that everyone realizes that after the health of our population, protecting our food security and food supply is important. The agriculture sector is really the backbone of our community. I am proud to say we are working together. We are working on improving the business risk management programs. We are also working on processing. There is a processing plant in my riding, and we are making sure products can safely get to markets as well.
We have invested more in AgriRecovery, given money to food banks and given money to the nutrition north program. A lot of the programs, like CERB, the wage subsidy program and the emergency business account, also apply to our smaller farmers, so I was happy they were able to take advantage of those programs. More work needs to be done and we will be there to continue to support our agriculture sector, which feeds us.