Agriculture committee  Yes. We are absolutely seeing that very issue. It's not necessarily showing in the revenue, but the costs are enormous and rising. One of the big things—and I think it's across the sector and across Canada—is the uncertainty. It's very difficult in planning, and it's not just gen

Agriculture committee  Sure. I would just say three broad things. First, we need to keep our facilities open, and that includes targeted, strategic investments in a sector as important as food. Second—to your earlier point—we need to get the workers into the facilities and keep them safe. Finally, we

Agriculture committee  We're absolutely on the same page here. The number one priority is to keep Canadians safe, to keep workers safe. For our member companies, that's absolutely their priority. They want to keep their workers safe, and they want to keep their doors open. I think that's really importa

Agriculture committee  Well, we do represent a diversity of small and large facilities and different types of processing, so it does really matter whether it's vegetable processing, or meat, or further packaged processing. We are seeing the Plexiglas and other barriers, or the staggering of shifts, or

Agriculture committee  First of all, just going back to the Canada emergency response benefit, the CERB, I think it was good that the government acted very quickly and responded to the huge demand and serious financial challenges faced by Canadians. We absolutely recognize that. However, the impact of

Agriculture committee  Are you referring to the Canada emergency response benefit in particular, that government program?

Agriculture committee  What we would like to see—and I think the government is on the right track—is a wage top-up to incentivize people to work in our industry. We would like to see those wage top-ups not only go to health care workers, who are absolutely essential, but also to food workers. We unders

Agriculture committee  I think we're at a critical time right now. First of all, we absolutely support funding primary producers and primary processors. Our member companies use the very ingredients in meat processing facilities and put them into packages for store shelves. It is a critical time. Wha

Agriculture committee  First of all, we've seen a huge increase in demand. As was stated earlier, there's been a loss in the food service market, so our members have had to cope with losses on that front and rechannel. But really, there's increased demand and they've had to work with very difficult sup

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee for the opportunity to present to you today to provide insights into the study on the Canadian response to the COVID-19 pandemic. My name is Carla Ventin, and I am the senior vice-president of government relations for Food & C