Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.

My name is Louis Dionne, and I'm the chief executive officer of the Centre de référence en agriculture et en agroalimentaire du Québec. Our mission is to produce, assemble and adapt knowledge and ensure its transfer, thereby promoting the evolution of practices in the agricultural and agri-food sector. Among other services, we produce transfer strategies, guides, technical leaflets, webinars, videos, events and any other product that enables us to reach agricultural and agrifood customers.

Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to introduce you to L'ARTERRE. L'ARTERRE is a matchmaking service coordinated by the Centre de référence en agriculture et en agroalimentaire du Québec. L'ARTERRE's goal is to guide and match aspiring farmers who are not related to agricultural producers or landowners with agricultural assets for sale or lease. We also provide guidance for farm transfers in close collaboration with transfer advisers.

L'ARTERRE was launched in March 2018, after many months of work between several partners in the agricultural community. The service is currently offered in some 50 regional county municipalities in Quebec, representing around half of Quebec's agricultural territory. Territories can choose whether or not to join L'ARTERRE. Membership in the service has grown gradually. Some regions have benefited from L'ARTERRE since the very beginning, six years ago, while others have been offering this service to their population for only three or four years.

Before a match is made, candidates go through a rigorous qualification process. Matchmaking agents support candidates in their reflection and in the identification of their needs as they set up their projects. They refer them to the people and specialists involved in the farming business, such as management consultants, notaries, accountants and tax specialists. When candidates and their projects are sufficiently prepared, they can then be put in touch with another candidate. The selection process is carried out by the networking agents, who read the files, discuss them with each other and assess the chances of success of potential matches.

Since the beginning of L'ARTERRE, networking agents have supported 1,841 aspiring farmers and 1,632 owners, including 914 agricultural producers. In six years, 239 matchmaking agreements have been reached within L'ARTERRE. To this figure must be added 306 aspiring farmers and 290 owners who were guided by L'ARTERRE agents, but who found a matching partner elsewhere than in L'ARTERRE's databases. In all, L'ARTERRE staff were involved in more than 800 matches. Among the 239 matches completed within L'ARTERRE, there were 132 rental projects, 44 sales projects, 41 full transfers and 12 partnerships. More than 25 production sectors are represented.

L'ARTERRE is a service appreciated and recognized as essential by all players in Quebec's agricultural community. The expertise developed by L'ARTERRE over more than six years is not found in any other territorial development organization, and contributes to the economic growth of rural communities.

Faced with the immense challenges of farm succession and farm establishment, as you have heard from my fellow witnesses, L'ARTERRE is an essential tool for linking a transferor with a potential transferee, thereby increasing the chances of keeping farm businesses in operation and stimulating the vitality of land occupation.

Despite L'ARTERRE's good results and the interest shown by local authorities in this service, L'ARTERRE faces major challenges that limit its development and the achievement of results that contribute more to the vitality of Quebec agriculture and rural regions.

Over the past year, we have laid the foundations of a new business model for L'ARTERRE to ensure its sustainability. What's missing now is the funding to support this business model. The main avenues of development we wish to pursue are: making the service accessible throughout Quebec's agricultural territory; raising awareness among potential transferors several years before the decision to retire from farming; and making the service accessible in other provinces that wish to support the establishment of farming.

In this regard, we have collaborated with and supported the efforts of Young Agrarians in British Columbia, who have also started a guidance service, the B.C. Land Matching Program, to match farm transferors with candidates.

In addition to all the proposals made by my fellow witnesses, I would add that the federal government could also devote adequate funding for all organizations within each of the provinces that want to get involved in matching unrelated candidates and transferors. This could go a long way to popularizing the tool of matching a transferor with an unrelated candidate.

I'd like to thank you for your attention, and I'd be delighted to answer any questions you may have.