Agriculture committee  Minister Qualtrough is the lead on this. I know she's working hard. I don't have the date.

Agriculture committee  We are investing significantly. In the last year, we have committed more than half a billion dollars on environmental measures. For example, we are extending our living labs. We're really proud of how we are taking our scientists and having them work with farmers in the field. That is showing results, and it helps inform farmers as well.

Agriculture committee  Yes, we are working on this, particularly for B.C. The Prime Minister has put in place a committee with a certain number of federal and provincial ministers working together. At this table, we are going into the details of investigating what the future could look like and what the impact could be.

Agriculture committee  Yes, I believe they will plant this year. I don't expect the opening of the U.S. market for seed potato for this year. I think they all know that already. For table-stock potatoes, I am still confident that we will be able to find a path forward to send our safe, good table-stock potatoes to the U.S.

Agriculture committee  We will receive, by the end of the month, concrete recommendations from the committee. This is what we expect. As you know, following the last FPT meeting, Minister Lamontagne and I are co-chairing the committee.... We provide administrative support to the industry to work together, and we expect them to come to a joint proposed voluntary code of conduct.

Agriculture committee  Let's see what they come with. I think we still have space for them to come to us with a voluntary code of conduct. If we had to apply something else, it would fall under provincial jurisdiction, and that would be quite a challenge to the country. Once again, all the options are on the table.

Agriculture committee  Absolutely. I've been working on this file, as my whole team has, for months. We really care, and we're doing everything we can to reopen the border. We have to live with potato wart on the island. I still believe that we have a very strong scientific case that what is in the Canadian ministerial order is the responsible thing to do, and the Americans should be reassured by these procedures.

Agriculture committee  Yes. We are looking at all options: retaliation, the WTO and CUSMA. We're looking at these options. This is a timing issue right now; producers need to make decisions for this season.

Agriculture committee  Exactly. I know that, but if we turn off the discussion at the technical table to enter into a trade challenge, we will have no hope for this season, because it will take longer.

Agriculture committee  We are proceeding with 35,000 soil analyses right now. We have to do a deeper analysis of the situation to be able to map in the right way where the disease is. Following this, we will know more, and we will probably have to strengthen the management side to avoid what you are describing right now.

Agriculture committee  First, what we were talking about just now really was about producers of supply-managed products. Second, when it comes to investment programs for processing more broadly, that would actually fall under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership [Technical difficulty—Editor].

Agriculture committee  We are committed to providing the details during the first year. It might be when the budget is announced, or in the fall economic and fiscal update. That remains to be seen. Nonetheless, I think producers and processors can rest assured. In the case of dairy producers, they received their third payment very recently, in January and February.

Agriculture committee  Yes, absolutely. All of the programs relating to the agreements signed with Europe and the Asia-Pacific zone cover producers and processors. The same will be true for compensation payments relating to CUSMA.

Agriculture committee  Yes, the question of labour is critical for the agricultural sector and for the food processing industry, clearly. Proposals have been made, and I have had productive discussions with Ms. Qualtrough and Mr. Fraser. I can assure you that there has been progress in this regard. I am persuaded that we will be improving our programs, both the programs for processors and that apply to processing plants and the ones for our agricultural producers.

Agriculture committee  Those are actually investment programs. They are grants to help processors modernize their facilities or digitize them, for example. That will enable them to be more competitive in the circumstances. It is one way of providing a partial answer to the labour shortage. So they are investment programs intended to improve their productivity.