Agriculture committee  Yes, we are.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Chair. Yes, indeed, a gene editing guidance document was released earlier this week, as I understand it. When the minister spoke earlier and said that we haven't acted yet, I think she was referring to the CFIA. I don't know the exact date, but CFIA would be coming out with some gene flow related to the environment guidance as well.

Agriculture committee  Yes, absolutely, there are things that Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada can do as a leader in that space. There was a specific request from Ukraine for a certain type of seed that Canada was able to provide. I'm not sure if it has actually arrived yet. There was some sensitivity about announcing it before it had actually arrived, so I don't want to name exactly what it is at this point, but we can certainly provide that information shortly.

Agriculture committee  Thanks. I will let Sylvie or Philippe give you an answer on that.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for the question. I believe that is indeed a key question, a strategic question. But I think it's mainly one for the representatives of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. I will therefore give the floor to my colleagues.

Agriculture committee  Yes, we do certainly look at best practices abroad as part of the natural climate solutions program across the government, which includes Natural Resources Canada and the tree-planting program, as well as Environment and Climate Change Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food. Trees are part of the various programs.

Agriculture committee  Chair, I'd like to thank the member for the question. The framework, just to remind members, is a $3-billion framework that is coming to its renewal next year. What's being negotiated right now is the next five years, starting in 2023. The lens is to drive sustainability, innovation, economic growth and competitiveness.

Agriculture committee  Ministers have already met a number of times on this framework. The next meeting of ministers will take place in early June. That will be a conversation. The big ministerial event will be in the third week of July in Saskatchewan, which is the host province this year. At that time, ministers are expecting to finalize a number of elements, if not all elements, of the framework, and at that moment they would have a launch of the next framework, which would start in 2023, as I mentioned.

Agriculture committee  As I mentioned before, a lot of the programs do have an integrated lens on both climate change and environment and do take an ecosystems approach or value the ecosystem services. An example of that would be the on-farm climate program, which is very much about the sustainable management of the land, which will bring benefits for biodiversity, soil, conservation—

Agriculture committee  Thanks, Chair, for the question. Typically, most Government of Canada programs—I think the vast majority—are counted as income when received, so therefore, if there's another program that comes later, as in the case of AgriStability, it will count that previous program payment as income.

Agriculture committee  Chair, I thank the member for the question. I wouldn't really be able to comment on the dynamics of the difference between those three. We can certainly give you something in writing if you'd like an answer to that question.

Agriculture committee  There is a very close relationship between the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food and ESDC, and certainly on this program. I think they understand the importance of the agriculture sector, particularly coming out of COVID-19 and the food security issues that have arisen. We are arguing strongly for the strong recognition of that group of workers coming in and are not sensing that there's a disconnect, if I can put it that way.

Agriculture committee  The way that fertilizer is organized, let's say, in Canada is really quite different depending on the region. The western part of Canada is completely self-sufficient in fertilizer, both the nitrogen fertilizer and the potash, which is a huge export for Canada. There's a regional difference.

Agriculture committee  The business risk management suite is designed to have a holistic approach to the kinds of risks that were noted. There's an AgriInsurance component, which provides a form of crop insurance. There's AgriStability, which responds to income loss or other shocks to the system. There's AgriRecovery, which was the tool used to respond to drought and flood.

Agriculture committee  I'll first offer a comment and then turn to colleagues from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency who may wish to add something, because it's a critical issue for them. Clearly we are operating in a more globalized setting in terms of trade and the movement of people and things, so there have been some increased risks of transmission.