Agriculture committee  For our risk assessment on any loans, it would be nearer-term and not so much on the tail event side of things. If you think about interest rate risk and some of the production risks, are there programs being utilized that have been discussed by the province and the federal government on the business risk management side of things?

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chair, from Farm Credit Canada's perspective, I could weigh in on the question. I really don't have an answer as it relates to the variety of programming from a disaster recovery perspective. I can confirm that our organization serves only one sector, the Canadian agriculture and food industry.

Agriculture committee  I will probably have my colleague Don Anderson join me in the response. At this stage, I would say a lot of the investment goes into more typical land buildings, technology and investment in the operation. Some of that technology can definitely...precision agriculture or areas that will be very applicable to adjusting practices to meet expectations for the future climate.

Agriculture committee  In response, I would say that in the current statute we operate within, there are some other responsibilities that can be assigned to Farm Credit Canada through the direction of the minister as well. From a financing perspective, being able to have sustainable financing is something we'll continue to look to build out from an offer perspective.

Agriculture committee  Good morning. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to address you today. Thank you for the opportunity to provide a briefing on the status of B.C.'s flood recovery efforts. I'm joined today by FCC senior vice-president Don Anderson, who is responsible for our customer-facing teams in B.C. and Alberta.

Agriculture committee  In terms of FCC's offer, our primary role is to provide financing to agriculture producers, agribusinesses and agri-food operators from coast to coast. The only insurance program we have would be more of a credit or life insurance or disability insurance. We're not in crop insurance or revenue insurance or those types of products.

Agriculture committee  In terms of doing a stress test on those types of climate changes, we haven't done something that's forward-looking and goes into the ranges involved. We'd be looking more at things like rapid escalating interest rates, and other things that would be top of mind, I would say, and the potential stresses that would directly impact Canadian agriculture.

Agriculture committee  In terms of the relationship between farm management practices, risk management practices and mental health on farms, there is some interest in doing some research in that space. I don't know if FCC would have an opinion on whether there is a strong link between them. That would be some of the basis for the research that would be done by Farm Management Canada, perhaps, in the years ahead.

Agriculture committee  Really, it's just trying to dig in and to understand what some of the underlying factors are that may contribute to different levels of stress on an operation. If we can find some of those, what might be areas that then operators or business partners like FCC could encourage to take place in those operations, that could manage some of the stress that could be dealt with?

Agriculture committee  Yes, we have really focused our training on our managers, as I mentioned, and then our front-line staff. We started the mental health first aid training with our group of employees who deal with our customers who are experiencing some financial challenges, our special loans group.

Agriculture committee  Yes, I think the answer to that would be positive. With the first workshops starting in the weeks ahead, we will see their impact and how they go over. We'll then look at what the next steps will be for the FCC. Your study will definitely feed into that. Are there opportunities from having speakers and events that we might put on to invest more in partnerships and sponsorships with organizations that have the skill sets to put these workshops on?

Agriculture committee  Regarding the specific comments on wraparound service, I have to be honest with you that I'm not extremely familiar with the recommendation. I know that some great work has been done on the subject by the University of Guelph. We are a national organization, with 100 offices across the country, many of them in rural Canada.

Agriculture committee  Thank you.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be back before the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food on behalf of Farm Credit Canada. My name is Michael Hoffort. I'm the president and CEO of Farm Credit Canada or FCC as you may know us. I last spoke to you in June when I outlined FCC's plans to address mental health challenges faced by Canadian farmers, ranchers and producers.

Agriculture committee  I can. Thank you.