Agriculture committee  No, as the minister has said, it is now a little over $300 million. There'll be $203 million from the options program that will be redirected to other priorities in the agricultural sector.

Agriculture committee  Should we get direction from the federal-provincial ministers to move with it in June, we are hoping the producer savings accounts program can be ready by 2008. However, the $600 million that the government announced would go out sooner than that, so that we can kickstart the program faster.

Agriculture committee  CAIS and production insurance are demand-driven programs. For example, the budget for BRM is $1.1 million. Every year CAIS has exceeded its budget. Production insurance has had a steady increase in terms of indemnities paid out to it. The grains and oilseeds payment actually paid out $754.2 million of the $755 million.

Agriculture committee  I'm not aware which program you're referring to. I'm sorry.

Agriculture committee  As an example, on the day the options program was announced, the application forms were on the Internet and we actually received our very first application, and within five days we had a payment for the options, as one example. That was a good news story. The cost of production program was just announced today, and we expect payments to start flowing in June.

Agriculture committee  A number of analyses were done before that program was created. People in the agricultural sector told us that it was difficult for them to use the renewal programs without getting funds to manage their businesses. This program was created in response to requests from the industry.

Agriculture committee  Directly, in terms of direct payments out of these programs, it was a little under $3 billion.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for your question. When in terms of last year, the fiscal year or the calendar year?

Agriculture committee  Actually, in CAIS alone, over $1.1 billion went out. Production insurance was over $500 million. For grains and oilseeds, from the calendar year of April to April and not before that, it was over $350 million. The other part of the $755 million went out earlier in the previous year.

Agriculture committee  Actually, CAIS is part of the APF, but it is a statutory program, so you are correct that it would take any one of the parties two years. They would have to identify in advance that they want to remove themselves from it. As to the federal–provincial ministers, when they first met in terms of talking about a replacement for CAIS, and as they consulted with industry, a number of industry members identified that they did want a margin-based program as a component of a new suite, but that wasn't enough.