Agriculture committee  I would just speak to what Mary said. We understand that there's still a lot of uncertainty in front of grain farmers, moving forward. From our understanding, things are moving reasonably well in that sector currently. However, as you know, things can evolve quite quickly. I think that certainly stands out as the sector that is, to some extent, in the current situation at least, managing reasonably well.

Agriculture committee  Yes. As it stands currently, as a national organization we certainly aren't the ones having those direct engagements with the provincial governments. However, we have encouraged our members to look at that wage top-up as a real opportunity for an incentive there, and to have discussions with their respective governments to see what can be done in that space.

Agriculture committee  I am, thank you.

Industry committee  Yes. Just building on those comments, I think we've heard time and again that recruitment is a real challenge in the current environment. There is the need for a financial incentive to help bring Canadians out to these jobs, and assistance with the costs associated with training would be a big investment in the processing sector as well.

Industry committee  I'd just like to follow up on Mr. Currie's response, if I could, for moment and just stress that the asks you're hearing coming from the cattle sector, for example, are the kinds of programming that we factored into the calculation of that number. That $2.6-billion emergency fund we speak of is really to ensure that there's funding available for the targeted programming responses we're talking about today with respect to the cattle industry, for example.

Industry committee  I don't have that offhand. I know it varies from region to region to some extent, and there were considerable unharvested products across much of western Canada last year, but I don't have specific stats on hand. I can certainly get that to you.

Industry committee  Just to add to Keith's remarks, I want to highlight—

Industry committee  —that one of the core elements that the CFA has highlighted as a concern is the need for immediate funding of $2.6 billion. That's in recognition of a whole series of identified—

Finance committee  I haven't heard that specifically, but I can speak to the importance of sole proprietorships, joint partnerships and use of dividends as ways of compensating farm owners and operators. They all seem to preclude a lot of agricultural operations from being able to access the CEBA.

Finance committee  Yes, sure, Mary. What we have heard on the Canada summer jobs program is that agricultural employers, as essential industries, can still access and apply, at this date, for the Canada summer jobs program. One of the challenges we've heard identified, however, is that no new funding or spaces have been made available in the program, so for agricultural employers to get applicants, it would require another business or industry to be bumped off the list.

Finance committee  Yes, sir. I think Mary covered it very well. I think the urgency of the BRM program enhancement speaks directly to the fact that farmers are making plans and decisions right as we speak. Those tools are needed to provide them with confidence so that we don't see those shortages and price increases that she referenced in her earlier response.

Agriculture committee  It would just depend on the nature of the tools ultimately developed, so we wouldn't at this time be able to provide an estimate of the cost.

Agriculture committee  I think in horticulture there is just an immense diversity of production, as you know, and I think with any product that has challenges on price discovery, it becomes difficult to make insurance products, and that's been part of the challenge. Greenhouse operations are another example of an aspect of the industry that doesn't have adequate production insurance, and that's certainly an area we'd like to see some attention devoted to.

Agriculture committee  We don't have any numbers on it currently. Certainly we've heard concern about it, and there will be a material impact, but we don't have any analysis of it to date.

Agriculture committee  We have seen a couple of tools developed, GARS being one, that are available in certain provinces in Canada. One of the challenges is that for any insurance product, every province is regulated separately, so they need to get regulatory approval to operate in every single province.