Agriculture committee  Yes, it would absolutely help strengthen it. It's also really important for the committee to realize that when it comes to processing, just because we have animals going out, it also means we have animals coming in and it means a lack of space. Again, it causes some major animal welfare concerns if we cannot get animals to a processing facility in a timely manner.

Agriculture committee  Therefore, certainly strengthening—

Agriculture committee  Again, I would just bring it back to the impacts of climate change. While I realize there's a war and a very strong threat of war happening and it could have severe impacts close to home, overall the climate is a greater emergency. It needs to be dealt with and it needs strong government action.

Agriculture committee  Yes, I believe so, and definitely the way I want to see Canada go is to look more inward to be able to meet our needs. We've felt the effects, too, with the NAFTA renegotiations and losing some of our market share for our eggs to the U.S. and other international trade deals. It is really important, I believe, to look locally.

Agriculture committee  Yes, please.

Agriculture committee  Supply management is what made our business possible.

Agriculture committee  Thank you.

Agriculture committee  Yes, absolutely. We don't have an option to slaughter our flocks on Vancouver Island. They have to be shipped to the mainland. It would be really wonderful to have more regional processing. We also do a small number of broilers, and we continually struggle with our local processor to have them done to the standard that we require when we sell directly to the consumer.

Agriculture committee  Yes, I believe that is safe to say.

Agriculture committee  It is different. We've always made an effort to emphasize local, and we have also done that with our feed. We've been fortunate working with Top Shelf Feeds, and we source most of our ingredients predominantly from Canada. We're one of the few farms that have done that. We deliberately chose not to go to an organic feed, because the organic grains were coming from India and China, and we could see the potential for supply chain issues already there.

Agriculture committee  Well, it is difficult, because we went through a lot in 2021. With the heatwave, we had to pull everything that we had to deal with the crisis in front of us without any support. We had offers of support, but nobody knew or understood how to help us. We were faced with the challenge of keeping our animals alive when we knew they would simply perish in that heat.

Agriculture committee  I believe having a good consulate in the sending country that's willing to work with the Canadian government.... We ran into an issue recently where it seemed like consular staff didn't like the temporary foreign workers we had chosen at the time. They delayed the visas for an excuse that was not valid, but by the time we were able to have it reviewed, we were well into the season.

Agriculture committee  The reason we do things is not always for financial gain or benefit. Certainly when it comes to the environment—as we saw in 2021 here in British Columbia, where we dealt with a devastating heat dome and the impacts of the floods—the environment is, absolutely hands-down, the most important thing we need to be talking about and essentially wrapping ourselves around.

Agriculture committee  The temporary foreign worker program, it would be nice to see some changes there and have more support for developing farmers or for smaller farmers like ourselves, who are just starting to take that step. We're not coming from a generation of farmers with a very large base. We're quite small and we realize and know that this is the next step we need to take, but it's more of a leap and it's concerning, so it's about having supports in place for that.

Agriculture committee  Hello. My name is Cammy Lockwood. As said, I'm an owner-operator at Lockwood Farms here on Vancouver Island, on the traditional territories of the Hul'q'umi'num'-speaking people. I am very blessed and honoured to be able to farm this land. My farm is quite small. We have about five acres.