Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to all the committee members. It's good to be back in front of this committee.

As most of you know, my name is Keith Currie. I'm the chair of CFA, and I'm an eighth-generation farmer here in Ontario. As the chair mentioned in the previous session, we recently conducted our Hill day here in Ottawa, last week, where we met with many MPs and senators to discuss our priorities. In a lot of cases, they are part of our pre-budget submission, which everyone can find in front of them, which has a list of these priorities.

I'd just like to situate our recommendations in some broader context. Producers are facing challenges across the country, including interest rates and debt-servicing costs that are the highest they've been since the 1980s. Farmers are also facing more frequent and severe weather events, while at the same time anticipating the next labour disruption in the supply chain. Our sector is also struggling to find workers, with the most recent statistics pointing out a total of nearly 30,000 jobs going unfilled on the farm, costing the sector almost $3.5 billion in lost revenues. All this is happening against the backdrop of declining agricultural productivity growth when the demand for agricultural products and the food security concerns have increased.

We have several recommendations to target these challenges.

By raising the interest rate portion of the advance payments program and reintroducing the accelerated capital cost allowance, we would help farmers with cash flow and their ability to invest in their operations.

In addition, we recommend maintaining the priority focus on agriculture within the temporary foreign worker program to support farmers' seasonal labour needs, while at the same time supporting pathways to permanent residency for industries with year-round labour requirements.

We would also like to expand the extended interswitching pilot program to encourage competition among railways and enhance the overall efficiency of the Canadian supply chain.

Lastly, on the short-term list, we cannot wait until 2028, when the next five-year FPT framework will be implemented, to address the sector's disaster relief needs. That's why we are recommending that the Government of Canada, in partnership with the provinces, territories and industry, immediately convene a disaster relief summit and strike a task team to look at options to better respond to environment-related disaster events.

We also have several recommendations that might improve the long-term health of Canada's agriculture sector.

First, we need to reduce unnecessary costs and regulatory barriers that threaten our ability to compete internationally. The PMRA and CFIA are key government regulators under the health portfolio that directly impact the availability of pest control products, as well as the labelling, packaging, licensing, certification, etc. of Canadian agriculture and agri-food products. While these functions are critical to maintaining Canada's domestic and international reputation as a supplier of safe, quality agriculture products, decisions are made without sufficient consideration of the economic impacts or the competitiveness of Canadian businesses.

We would also recommend that the responsibility for both the CFIA and the aquaculture sector be transferred to AAFC, to ensure that policies are better aligned with economic objectives and to ensure that all of Canada's agriculture commodities are handled by the same department. Aquaculture is agriculture.

Our second priority involves the Canada Grain Act, which is increasingly outdated and challenged to both protect grain producers and respond to evolving global demands for their products. Another priority involves updating the Canada Grain Act to address key areas of concern to producers, while reaffirming the Canadian Grain Commission's mandate to maintain standards and regulate grain handling in the interests of grain producers.

Furthermore, if we want to reverse the trend of declining productivity growth in Canada, we need to invest in innovation and data-driven technologies. There are several challenges standing in the way of progress, including connectivity limitations, high upfront costs with purchasing precision agriculture equipment, farm data ownership concerns around trust, and how data is being used. As a result, we published a report called “Data as a Foundation for Sustainable Productivity Growth”, which includes several recommendations, including the creation of a pan-Canadian data strategy that would coordinate investment in digital skills, research, programming and farm-level data measurement to support Canada's productivity and sustainability objectives.

Finally, we all know that thousands of farmers and ranchers across Canada are heavily reliant on exports, while thousands more rely on rail service to get across critical inputs for essential farm practices. We need to find solutions that will reduce the risk of future labour disruptions, which are destabilizing for the Canadian economy, the Canadian public and Canadian farming. For that reason, CFA has been calling for the development of a critical food and farm input strategy that would prioritize the transportation of agriculture food products during labour disruptions and ensure Canadian producers have a long-term, stable source of supply for critical farm inputs needed to produce quality agriculture and agri-food products.

Thank you. I look forward to your questions.

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