Agriculture committee  That's a very good question. I'm sorry, but I realize that a lot of rural Canada has very slow Internet connectivity, and it certainly prevents some monitoring technologies. I know that in the greenhouse sector, Jan, it would be vital that connectivity be constant in case of alar

Agriculture committee  We have put forward some recommendations. I'm sorry I don't have them in front of me right now. One challenge with having it as part of a production insurance plan is that they're provincially administered. One province may choose to use that type of program while others will no

Agriculture committee  What we're looking at is doing a diversification study that takes into account how individual farm operations through diversification minimize the risk of triggering, and taking into account that if we're diversified, we should either pay a lower premium and/or be able to offset

Agriculture committee  Thanks, Jan. It is clear that the business climate for fruit and vegetable growers has never been riskier. To mitigate some of the risks that our growers take on year after year, the Canadian Horticultural Council is pleased to provide its recommendations for improving the feder

Agriculture committee  Yes, that's correct. The April numbers that are quoted, when compared to last year, aren't the same. It's not apples and apples. On March 17, I think, the workers stopped coming, and those workers from March 17 to the end of the month, plus the April workers, were due to come in.

Agriculture committee  From my point of view, the Canadian government has really focused on how important these workers are and is doing everything it can to get the workers here. Some of the issues are related to supply countries. Mexico is in a real mess; its computers were hacked just before COVID h

Agriculture committee  It's certainly a possibility. Yes.

Agriculture committee  We updated those numbers from the original brief. Quebec has received just 50% and British Columbia 54%, with Ontario and the Atlantic around 78%, but, yes, there is still a critical shortage of workers on some farms.

Agriculture committee  I'm sorry. I haven't. I'm certain that I could get that number to you fairly rapidly. That would be a number that Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada would be able to supply rapidly, I would think.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for the question, but I apologize. I have rural Internet and your question was a bit fuzzy. Is it what is the effect this will have if it doesn't happen? Growers are reducing—

Agriculture committee  Well, we've already heard that asparagus production is estimated to be down by 50%. A lot of people who are planting annual crops are reducing the amount they're planting to a “for sure” manageable level. What I hear more often than not is that they're reducing plantings by 20%.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to be here. Thank you to the committee members for working under these extraordinary circumstances on behalf of Canadians. My name is Brian Gilroy. I am the president of the Canadian Horticultural Council. I am also an apple grower fro

Finance committee  You're absolutely right. Some sectors of agriculture, floriculture for example, have been hit dramatically hard, and some of those workers have transferred to other farming operations. To the best of my knowledge, anybody who has come into the country to work in agriculture, if t

Finance committee  Sure. As I mentioned, back in 2013 the AgriStability levels were dropped to 70% of 70%, and that makes the program not worthwhile, not usable, for a very large percentage of farmers.

Finance committee  The main program.... There's production insurance. Some crops have access to it, and some crops don't. We have 120 different crops in horticulture, and certainly the greenhouse sector does not have access to crop insurance. Even if they do, labour shortage or labour issues are no