Agriculture committee  We work closely with our colleagues in the Department of Employment and Social Development and the Department of Immigration to make sure that the system works as well as possible. I know that our colleagues at Service Canada have had to deal with an increase in the number of ap

Agriculture committee  Yes, it is correct that within the federal government the policy leads for that policy would reside with the Department of Finance and the Department of Environment and Climate Change.

Agriculture committee  Yes, we have data on that, and more generally the data shows that energy efficiency has been improving on the farm over time. Kara may be able to talk to that in more detail. If not, I'll be happy to follow up with some additional data.

Agriculture committee  I'm not sure whether Mr. Valicenti can answer that. You're right, there is a program in place. We will follow up and see what information is available on the results of that program to date.

Agriculture committee  Yes, we are looking at the possibility of using those tests, but I'm not sure where we're at with that. Mr. Valicenti can probably give you more details.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for your question, sir. Yes, we have put in place a process with a working group and industry. Two working groups have been set up, one for the dairy sector and another for the egg and poultry sector, to discuss the impact of market concessions in trade agreements and

Agriculture committee  Yes, we have had extensive discussions with industry stakeholders about what trade agreements mean and how they will affect the industry in the future. That process has helped us to more fully understand their perspective on the impacts and on how to minimize them. Marco Valicent

Agriculture committee  We do have some analysis, Mr. Chair, in the public domain. We'd be happy to share this. I believe that most of the groups that have done analysis on costs associated with grain drying have put their analysis in the public domain, but we'd be happy to compile that for the committe

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chair, we did see increases across the board in 2018. For the most part, those just reflect increases in costs of things like labour, fertilizers and fuel. These figures are from 2018, at least in terms of the federal backstop for pollution pricing. It was in place in 2018—al

Agriculture committee  I think you're right in saying that the federal system wasn't in place in 2018. Oil, electricity, and fertilizer prices are set by the markets, and they can go up and down. There is volatility, and prices go up and down. There are a number of provincial pollution pricing programs

Agriculture committee  Thank you for your question, sir. The Agri-Food Economic Strategy Table has made recommendations, both short-term and long-term, with respect to labour shortages. The short-term recommendations are geared toward improving programs to allow foreign workers into the country to ad

Agriculture committee  Yes, we have over time done some analysis on the estimates of the impact of pollution pricing on costs in the agricultural industry. Recently there has been a focus on the cost associated with pollution pricing for grain drying, in an exceptionally wet harvest season in many pa

Agriculture committee  Our own internal analysis, as well as from those submitted to us by both industry and provinces, would suggest that it's a fairly small share of overall costs. Typically, I think grain drying represents about 1% of total costs for grain producers. This year it was probably runnin

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chair, I remember that the Alberta government had submitted a number. Their estimate had the pollution pricing bid in place in Alberta in 2019. My recollection is that their estimate had the figure at about $2.7 million as the added cost from pollution pricing. The grain sec

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chair, that's a hard question to answer because most of the analyses done, including our own, look at the cost, either direct or indirect, imposed on the industry. None of them, to my knowledge has looked at the recycling effects of those revenues remaining in the province, r