Agriculture committee  There's a technical committee that will be put in place to analyze and see how we can put in place this offset system. It is, as you know, under the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. We are obviously collaborating with him to make sure that we bring as much data and evidence as possible from the agricultural sector to him.

Agriculture committee  I would have to turn to my colleague at Environment and Climate Change.

Agriculture committee  Once again, it's not my department that is responsible for that. We have committed—

Agriculture committee  Of course.

Agriculture committee  I am.

Agriculture committee  I don't have misgivings, in that it's a priority for us. It's in my mandate letter, and in the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister's letter.

Agriculture committee  In the short term, my goal was to improve the AgriStability program. Indeed, after many, many hours of studying all the risk management programs and 22 discussions with my provincial and territorial colleagues, everyone agreed that AgriStability is the priority. To make the program simpler, fairer and more generous, in November 2020, I made a proposal to my provincial and territorial colleagues that we remove the reference margin limit and increase the compensation rate from 70% to 80%.

Agriculture committee  Are you hearing about it in the field, Mr. Perron?

Agriculture committee  To be honest with you, I must say that you are the only ones who have told me about this, with one exception. The department team contacts the people when they have new information on the matter. The Safe Food for Canadians Act and the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, in particular, seem to have adequate mechanisms in place, especially given that the related losses are less than 0.1%.

Agriculture committee  We really want to find a solution. A private member's bill doesn't seem to be the best way to do it. It's always a little tricky to introduce a private member's bill that has tax and budget implications, isn't it? It remains a priority for us. Our tax teams are in the process of trying to figure out the best possible mechanism, because it is a situation we wish to address.

Agriculture committee  Indeed. I'll probably ask Ms. Walker, the assistant deputy minister and chief financial officer, to answer that question. I know that it comes from various sources within the budgets—

Agriculture committee  It's up to you. You can also ask Ms. Walker, if you wish.

Agriculture committee  Based on the discussions we've had with their representatives, I'm confident they'll be satisfied with the program.

Agriculture committee  I have nothing but good things to say. Last year, we had already gone through this with the Canadian Dairy Commission, which was mandated to calculate and make payments and manage the process. They made sure they informed all the dairy farmers, who had to fill out a fairly simple form.

Agriculture committee  We announced $691 million in compensation for the first two agreements, with Europe and the Trans-Pacific region. All the discussions we had with their representatives, and there were many, led us to programs providing investment and marketing assistance. That was completely acceptable to us, and we are now in the process of putting the finishing touches on those programs.