Public Accounts committee  There are a number of program supports. First of all, there is some research work that we will often do with provinces or other partners, and sometimes universities, to support some of these indoor agriculture or agriculture in a container in the north. There would be a range of

Public Accounts committee  Yes.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for your question. We started with the six organizations used. There were a few rounds of funding, and every time, we learned lessons from the feedback of potential partners, notably whether the funding was distributed on the ground. When there were gaps in distributi

Public Accounts committee  I'm sorry. I was referring to a program that wasn't audited. It's the AgriRecovery program, and the example I was giving was related to the drought of last summer. It was a federal-provincial program under the business risk management suite that went to Ontario, the three prairie

Public Accounts committee  In terms of better emergency preparedness, I think it is clarity around, first of all, preparedness in advance. It's how the food system is set up. It can be everything from the crops we grow and where we grow them to being better prepared by ensuring that we're building in buffe

Public Accounts committee  That was everything: labour, transportation inputs, access to PPE and other things. It was the whole gamut from producer right to the delivery of food.

Public Accounts committee  The answer is yes. We do and will continue to think about how climate change will affect food production. Again, the recent floods in B.C. are an example of the kind of extreme events one expects to see more of. There is a very real effect on food production there in the Abbotsfo

Public Accounts committee  Pardon me, was that the surplus food rescue program that you were asking about?

Public Accounts committee  Yes, okay. This $50-million program was really the first of its kind to try to match some of the surplus food that producers, farmers or, in some cases, the fishing sector had, and match that with food banks. I think the good news of that would be that we were able to distribute

Public Accounts committee  The emergency food security fund was more of a direct transfer to the food banks and food security organizations for the national or regional ones to share the money across their networks. We were aiming to get as broad a distribution as possible, and national coverage, with thos

Public Accounts committee  If a food bank has issues, we're always open to hear concerns and questions. We have to be. This was not an area that Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada was involved in prior to the pandemic. We wanted to work with groups that would allow us to get as broad a reach as possible ac

Public Accounts committee  I do not have that number with me. It would have been in the applications looking for some indication of what was intended and what the outcomes would be. We would have had it project by project, when you apply obviously, but I don't have that in front of me right now.

Public Accounts committee  I'll find—

Public Accounts committee  Just as a reminder, that funding went beyond meat processing. It obviously went to a range of food processing sector participants. As I say, in the applications it would have been how to either maintain existing production volumes under the COVID operating circumstances or provid

Public Accounts committee  I would say that in our work, you'd probably need both. You need national structures. You need an approach that engages with all of the partners. I want to make sure that we think about business in there, too, along with provinces and territories, indigenous communities, and othe