Agriculture committee  Mr. Chair, I am still here, but unfortunately I will have to leave the meeting after giving my answer. With respect to AgriRecovery, we are working closely with our colleagues in British Columbia. Obviously, the Minister will be the one to announce the decision, but we understand the urgency of the situation and are working to get a program in place without delay.

Agriculture committee  The aim of AgriRecovery is to help producers get back to business as soon as possible. In addition, a committee will look at longer-term measures.

Agriculture committee  Maybe I can leave it there and take a supplementary question.

Agriculture committee  From a business risk management perspective, and in particular an AgriRecovery initiative, right now the federal and provincial governments are focused on the immediate impacts and providing support to producers so that they can resume their operations as quickly as possible. But there is the committee, referenced earlier, between the federal and British Columbia governments working with first nations—

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I unfortunately do have an appointment that requires me to leave at a quarter to one at the very latest, but I think it's important to take your questions. With regard to the business risk management programs, we are working very closely with our provincial counterparts to understand all of the extraordinary costs the producers could incur and to launch a program that would meet their requirements in a very timely fashion.

Agriculture committee  Actually, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is the only department within the core public service that has a team of actuaries. Our chief actuary is a fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries. They are doing some modelling in terms of the potential impacts of climate change.

Agriculture committee  As I mentioned earlier about the AgriStability program, along with the provinces, we have put in place measures so that agricultural producers can apply for interim payments. Normally they can receive 50% of these payments, but we have increased the threshold to 75%. To date, 122 producers have applied for interim payments.

Agriculture committee  In British Columbia, the program is administered by the province. This morning, I was given the confirmation that 46 producers have applied for enrolment, and 43 have applied for interim payments. In addition, 122 producers have applied for late entry into the program.

Agriculture committee  Yes. As part of the recent agreements with the provinces, we have put in place a measure called late participation. Under this measure, if the Government of Canada and the provincial government decide to remove the requirement of previous enrolment in the program, producers who were not enrolled can enrol after the deadline.

Agriculture committee  Yes. There's a formal process when we launch an AgriRecovery initiative. First, we need to determine if it is a recurring event or an abnormal event, and if there are extraordinary costs. This event has clearly met those requirements. Next, we look at whether it is a collective experience.

Agriculture committee  We try to get it right. With the B.C. wildfires and drought, whether it is the drought in the western provinces.... To date, we've been able to respond to producers' needs in a timely manner, and we aim to achieve the same with this initiative.

Agriculture committee  I think my colleague Stéphanie Durand may be in a better position to respond to that. Stéphanie, would you be able to respond?

Agriculture committee  It's difficult, because.... Most producers, with the exception of those who are supply-managed, have access to their AgriInvest accounts, so we can see the withdrawal rates. With AgriStability, if they're already enrolled, they'll file their request after they file their taxes. We're also encouraging producers who haven't already enrolled to enrol in AgriStability through late participation—

Agriculture committee  AgriRecovery is a framework. It's not an actual program. We do an assessment with the provinces to determine what the extraordinary costs are. Then we put in place a program and seek the authorities and the source of funds in order to put the program in place. In the case of AgriRecovery, it doesn't offset income losses—that would be covered through AgriStability—but AgriRecovery can cover the extraordinary costs producers need to incur to resume their operations.

Agriculture committee  Part of an AgriRecovery assessment is to see whether this is a recurring event. There was an event in 2011 called the Canada-British Columbia excess moisture initiative, but the scope and magnitude of this is far beyond that. We would categorize this as a one-in-a-hundred-years event.