Agriculture committee  I'll let Ms. Walker answer that question.

Agriculture committee  I would just add that, as Colleen said, there is quite a close connection between the agency, the department and our provincial and territorial counterparts and industry as well, through the value chain there. Obviously part of that would be the programming, the types of supports.

Agriculture committee  There are a couple of things I'll say. Colleen may want to add things from CFIA's standpoint. We do, as you allude to, work very closely with Global Affairs Canada, with our missions in the jurisdiction in question, whether that's in Brussels or in parts of Europe and Asia, and with the industry to make sure that we're seeing implementation go smoothly.

Agriculture committee  I'll ask Ms. Walker to confirm that it's indeed in the document. It's the first phase of the challenge that we launched. We're trying to find innovative solutions to waste problems and are inviting people with an entrepreneurial bent to suggest innovative solutions to the biggest problems in the field.

Agriculture committee  Yes. As you say, you should really put that question to my colleagues at the Department of Finance..

Agriculture committee  I was reflecting in the time between, and we have not heard about that, Mr. MacGregor. I'd be really happy just to suggest that you might want to direct them to engage with us. The excise tax, as you say, is not our responsibility, but we'd be happy to talk to them about the situation and whether there are things we can do to assist.

Agriculture committee  I'd say we are about a year and a half or less into the fund being launched, so it's probably a bit early to declare success or any outcome, other than that it has obviously been quite popular. I think we see it as a very strong program to build local food systems. In the approach to the priorities of the food policy that the minister talked about a bit, certainly strong local food systems are a critical part.

Agriculture committee  Our initial funding was for a five-year period and it was launched last year, so I'd say we still have a bit more time. Obviously with COVID, we've had a few changes in how our funding has been disbursed, but I wouldn't expect to necessarily have that review completed in the next year.

Agriculture committee  Colleen, would you like to talk a bit about the prevention efforts with CFIA and CBSA? If it's okay, Ms. Rood, I'll then answer about what we would do if.... We can kind of split it. I'll let Colleen start.

Agriculture committee  Certainly, when it comes to direct payments to producers, those would go without strings, to be clear, as the payments did last year or the beginning of this current year. We can certainly, with investment programs...not necessarily the compensation package, but through other programming.

Agriculture committee  I'd be more inclined to say that, in the event of an emergency, we can always look at other options internally or request new funding to respond to it. That's more general.

Agriculture committee  I think the minister said she was in the process of determining whether additional funding could be obtained. We're also working closely with our provincial counterparts. Under the Canadian agricultural partnership, the provinces receive nearly $200 million a year in federal funding.

Agriculture committee  Pardon me, my connection was cut off. What program are you talking about?

Agriculture committee  I'll start answering that, and I'll ask Ms. Walker to correct me if I make a mistake. First, we had additional funds in our 2019-2020 budget that we had used to increase our capital budget. We had added approximately $10 million, in part to meet requests from our research centres.

Agriculture committee  Ms. Barnes can tell you more about that, but the CFIA budget is separate from ours. Our capital expenditures are, to a large extent, allocated to our research centres.