Agriculture committee  Prior to the $20 million that was announced, yes, some plants were not operating at capacity. I will say that things have been a lot better in the past two or three weeks. The crux of the issue, however, is that some inspectors are afraid to go into the plants, and that can sign

Agriculture committee  With respect to labour, we're certainly realizing that we are competing. What we asked the government to do is adjust the programs so that students can go to work in the fields or at the plants, mainly for the summer. When harvesting starts, the demand for workers at plants is g

Agriculture committee  No, not as far as processing is concerned. That applies mainly to farm workers. It's another program that covers those who work in processing, and I know many companies are still waiting on those workers. Bear in mind that, once they do arrive, they have to go into quarantine fo

Agriculture committee  Thank you for the opportunity, Mr. Perron. The key to helping processors is to provide subsidies and financial tools that lead to better cash flow. As Ms. Cloutier said earlier, processors' margins have dropped, so they need mechanisms that enable them to spread out investments

Agriculture committee  The labour shortage is very apparent across the sector, with a tremendous number of jobs available. Conversely, employees in other sectors of Canada's economy have been particularly hard hit. We recommend broadening the sector's appeal through programs that promote occupations w

Agriculture committee  Yes, it's urgently needed. It has become clear how much we need those workers. On top of that, the industry is facing a labour shortage. I'll give you a bit of the history. About a decade ago, the temporary foreign workers program set the cap at 30%. It was reduced to 20% and, t

Agriculture committee  The pilot project you're referring to is a federal program. It's not available in Quebec. A pilot project is being discussed in Quebec; it is supposed to start on January 1. Owing to the federal-provincial agreement on labour, Quebec should be launching its pilot project on Janu

Agriculture committee  Yes, absolutely. We've worked a lot with the people at the ministry of immigration, precisely to point them in the right direction so the program does what we need it to.

Agriculture committee  Yes. It's tough to compare companies in Canadian provinces with one another or with those in the United States. A few years back, a study showed that 80% of businesses in Quebec were small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 50 employees, whereas in Ontario, 50% of busin

Agriculture committee  Yes, programs do exist, but as I said earlier, young people, students and unemployed workers need to know about them. People aren't aware of the occupations in the sector. If the processing sector in your riding is fully staffed, good for you. It means you're doing a good job com

Agriculture committee  I have one thing to add, and it's quite important as well. When a small or medium-sized business wants to automate its operations, it needs support. It needs guidance. Adopting that new way of doing things is not easy. Things that come to mind are coaching and engineering support

Agriculture committee  if I may, I'd like to clarify something. Investing in universities and investing in businesses are not the same thing. It's important to distinguish between the two. The crucial thing to remember when you invest in universities is the time it takes for the knowledge to be transfe

Agriculture committee  Yes, that is where the deficiency is. It's really about speeding up the transfer of knowledge. I mentioned consulting and coaching services, and that is precisely what I'm talking about. Businesses need access to advice and support. They need to know what tools are available to t

Agriculture committee  I can speak to the situation in Quebec, but not so much for the situation in the rest of Canada. Quebec is fortunate in that it has a number of institutions, not just universities, but also agri-food technology institutes. In other provinces, they're called colleges. Yes, the ca

Agriculture committee  Yes. I would add to that the importance of fostering stability in the supply chain. That became clear during the pandemic. Bear in mind that Canada went through the CN rail strike and the rail blockades, followed by the strike at the Port of Montreal. Ensuring the stability throu