Agriculture committee  We have come at this issue in a number of different ways. One recent example is that when the CAP framework agreement came into being, it was agreed that we get an external panel of experts to review our business risk management programs, which was done and a report was sent went back to ministers, I think about a year and a half ago now.

Agriculture committee  It is true that as part of some regulatory reform initiatives, the Treasury Board Secretariat called for stakeholders to identify priorities for regulatory reform. Reform of the Grain Act was one of the more frequently identified priorities coming from the agri-food sector. Budget 2019 committed to undertaking a review of the Grain Act.

Agriculture committee  I would characterize that as fair. We are moving forward and will be, but no, I would not say we're working under a definitive timeline for the process at this stage.

Agriculture committee  In terms of specific dollar figures, we'll need to get back to the committee. We have had dialogue and discussion over time of the appropriate role of the public sector vis-à-vis the private sector in variety research. It's really more a question of where we position public research efforts and how we best attract private research dollars into this space to complement public investments.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for the question. The colleagues who will be joining you shortly are the ones administering the risk management programs. They will be able to offer their perspective on those issues. According to the mandate letter for the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, she is indeed responsible for assessing how to improve risk management programs, which are managed jointly with the provinces and territories.

Agriculture committee  The mandate letter for the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food asks her to review all the programs, with a special focus on AgriStability. So that is the approach we have taken.

Agriculture committee  Yes, we are looking at a number of options to improve the programs. We are having a lot of discussions with stakeholders to understand their priorities. To that effect, we have heard a number of ideas from producers. In addition, we are having proactive discussions with the provinces to understand their perspective on these issues and to come to a consensus on reforms.

Agriculture committee  Scientifically, our department is conducting research to try to predict and better understand the impacts of climate change on the agricultural sector. We are trying to predict temperature and precipitation for the next few years and decades to help the agricultural sector adapt to the changes we have seen to date and will likely continue to see in the future.

Agriculture committee  We are trying to encourage producers to improve their environmental performance. We specifically have programs to help them reduce their environmental footprint. In addition, we are looking for better ways to encourage carbon sequestration to reduce emission levels in the sector and to increase the number of carbon sinks on farms.

Agriculture committee  There's an understanding of the opportunities in soil sequestration and in nature-based solutions to both increase carbon sequestration and the environmental co-benefits. Things like shelters belts, for example, can contribute not just to sequestering carbon, but also have benefits for water availability, water quality and biodiversity.

Agriculture committee  I'll maybe invite my colleagues to comment too, but I was remiss, in responding to the earlier question, not to mention that, as some members may be aware, several weeks ago Minister Bibeau did a call for interest in a youth council to get at exactly that, to hear directly from younger people involved in and interested in farming and agri-food what their perspectives and priorities are.

Agriculture committee  Off the top of my head, I would say that the BRM suite of programs, in terms of where dollars are allocated, I think would be the largest share of programs. In addition to that, we have two types of programming. We have the federal-only programming that's delivered by the department, and then there is cost-shared programming, where we have these five-year framework agreements with provinces.

Agriculture committee  I'd offer a couple of thoughts. Marco alluded to the work of the economic strategy table and its recommendations for growing the sector and what the priorities are in terms of infrastructure and skills and regulation. In terms of a blueprint or a plan for growing the sector, that has certainly been a bit of a guidepost for us in that regard.

Agriculture committee  I believe that our colleagues who will be joining the committee for the second hour are the experts in our business risk management programs. They're probably best placed to answer that. In the interest of time, I'll defer until they're here.

Agriculture committee  We have a number of programs. There are a number of things we can do. Through our cost-shared programming with the provinces, we do have a number of measures in place called BMPs, or best management practices, where we provide incentives for on-farm reductions in the environmental footprint of producers.