Agriculture committee  I would suspect all will take advantage of it, because basically, for the start program, the money basically is just up to them. All they had to do was agree that they would participate in AgriInvest. There is no reason not to, since for every dollar they put in the bank, they receive a federal dollar.

Agriculture committee  Absolutely. Everybody has been responding. Right now, we're putting the system in place to see how many people are asking for the money immediately and how many people are trying to keep it in. That is also very important, to find out how many are keeping it as an account versus the ones who are needing it right away to address their needs right now.

Agriculture committee  We had tremendous input from the industry, and the national CAIS committee was also very instrumental in providing us a lot of input.

Agriculture committee  Might...?

Agriculture committee  Basically, we sent out the letters at the end of December. By January we were receiving requests, and now cheques have started going out to those who requested them. For those who didn't, the money is still there for them.

Agriculture committee  We are always open to looking, and there is an appeal process for producers as well, which would not stop. So, of course.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much for the questions. On the AgriRecovery program, a number of smaller disasters have actually happened over the past year. Some of that also includes cover crop. There is the cover crop protection program to help with excess flooding, excess moisture. This year we have integrated that with production insurance in terms of how it gets paid out.

Agriculture committee  It's a demand-driven program, so where the demand is required, the payments are made out. So if there is more in one province or less in a province, it goes to where the need is greatest, but it does actually end up going according to farm cash receipts.

Agriculture committee  So far, for the kickstart program, we have sent out a number—actually, well over 150,000—letters to producers telling them exactly what their share is for the first instalment of the kickstart. We've already been receiving quite a bit of response, some requesting that the money be withdrawn, some requesting that it remain in the account, to save it for a rainy day or when they require it.

Agriculture committee  Basically, there was over $500 million announced, and some of the options might have come from that $500 million. There were a number of new programs, as my colleague identified. There was the Orchards and Vineyards Transition Program. However, production costs will increase over the next few years.

Agriculture committee  As you know, the programs are primarily demand-driven; however, the total share of the business risk management assistance to Quebec farmers is actually similar to the provincial share of the farm cash receipts when you exclude supply management. When you exclude supply management, it's between 11% and 13%, and that is actually the amount of money that they get in terms of pre-business risk management programs.

Agriculture committee  On the farm families options program, as you know, it is a two-year pilot program. We are in the second year of the pilot. The decision to limit it in the second year was actually not made very lightly at all and was made with a lot of stakeholder input. A lot of producers, actually, were questioning the program.

Agriculture committee  Actually, in terms of some of the comments I just made, a targeted advance for 2008 will be available to those producers within a few weeks, and that is where Canada delivers. Where it doesn't, there are interims. For example, Ontario is looking at delivering interims for 2008 immediately as well.

Agriculture committee  First of all, on behalf of the department, and especially myself, I do sincerely apologize for that. It was an innocent error; however, it couldn't have happened at a worse time and it couldn't have happened to a sector that was hurting more. As you know, there was a Saskatchewan election going on.

Agriculture committee  Actually, all the provinces have now agreed to the new business risk management suite. That was the December 19 date I was referring to. So once we had the amending formula and enough to do, now we are in the process of implementing it all. The hog industry started with the big TAPs.