Agriculture committee  Overall, I think our stakeholders are very happy with the innovation programming. They really like the clusters program because it brings a range of partners together to collaborate in certain sectors. For example, there's a beef cluster and a dairy cluster. We hear very good thi

Agriculture committee  That's a very good question. That seamless transition from one framework to the next is an objective that has been guiding our timeframes for the development of the next policy framework. We hope that the minister's signing the multilateral agreement in July 2017 will be a key m

Agriculture committee  I think that's part of some of the things we're hearing from industry. They're asking those same kinds of questions. We'll have to see how the discussions around the pan-Canadian framework shape up and what the the implications will be for agriculture across the country.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for the question. Again, we agree completely that innovation is one of the key drivers of the long-term success of the sector. In Growing Forward 2, at the federal level we've allocated almost $700 million over the five years towards science and innovation activities.

Agriculture committee  Yes, there is. We've been coordinating with the provincial governments on the range of activities that the minister, as well as the department, is engaging with. The minister has been travelling across the country, and at some of the events he's been participating in round tables

Agriculture committee  The value chain round tables are a mechanism we use in the department to engage with the industry. I believe there are 13 round tables right now. They cover a range of sectors, such as beef, pork, and grains, as well as some cross-cutting ones, such as industrial bioproducts. T

Agriculture committee  Those are primarily targeted to farming households.

Agriculture committee  To be honest, I'm not exactly sure how they chose which households to send it to, but I think they covered off a large number of the participants in our various programs.

Agriculture committee  There were six priority areas that were covered in the Calgary Statement, and I think environment and climate change is one of the new priorities. Public trust is second and value-added food processing is a third one that's articulated in there. When it comes to those things, u

Agriculture committee  Good morning. I'd like to thank the committee once again for offering Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada the opportunity to come to discuss the next policy framework. We've achieved a number of significant things since the assistant deputy minister, Greg Meredith, spoke with you

Agriculture committee  With innovation being a key component of the current framework, we expect it to continue to be important. That's all part of the work that our scientists working with the industry do, looking for where the new opportunities and the new risks of production are going to be, which c

Agriculture committee  When we look at the objectives of Growing Forward 2, and I assume it will continue on, it's really about supporting the economic prosperity of the sector. What we see is that there are a number of different business models and different ways to be profitable in agriculture. Some

Agriculture committee  Thank you for the question. One of the real benefits of the policy framework we have right now, as Mr. Meredith was saying, is it's a national framework with national objectives but each province has the flexibility to implement programs that meet those national objectives but a

Agriculture committee  The programs are much more designed along objectives, whether it's supporting innovation or market development or skills development, and then they accept applications from various commodity groups to support individual commodities. If they're helping, say, potato growers with in

Agriculture committee  The way it works now allows them to say say they support objectives of increasing innovation and productivity, and each commodity can decide if that program is of interest to them and they can apply for it. That's up to the industry to come forward with what they are interested i