Hon. Marie-Claude Bibeau, P.C., M.P., Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food: I would say that we’ve been very successful with free trade agreements in recent years. For instance, we concluded an agreement for the trans-Pacific region with countries in Asia. We also reached agreements with the European Union, the United States and Mexico. It seems to me that Canada is already well covered in terms of relationships and trade agreements with the countries targeted by the United States.

As you know, this file is managed by my colleague Mary Ng, the Minister of International Trade. Obviously, everything related to international trade is a pillar of agriculture, along with research and innovation. This is extremely important to us. We already have some windows of opportunity to develop markets in many countries. There are also business opportunities that we are trying to develop, in partnership with the industry and various associations in the agricultural sectors that have an interest in countries or other jurisdictions. Ultimately, it is our farmers and their associations that set their priorities with respect to the countries where they want to develop their markets. Canada is already very well positioned with these three very important free trade agreements.

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Hon. Marie-Claude Bibeau, P.C., M.P., Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food: Thank you. That is an interesting idea. Our foreign worker programs start with a bilateral agreement between Canada and the source countries, primarily Mexico and Guatemala in the case of temporary foreign worker programs.

That would be the first step, if the country showed an interest. This could be discussed with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. Then, that community could potentially be integrated into the program.

I would like to take this opportunity to say that, as the Minister of Agriculture, my objective is to address the labour shortage through foreign worker programs, but we also have concerns about the safety of these workers. Minister Qualtrough and I want to make sure that we implement the measures needed to ensure that our workers are better integrated despite the language barrier.

I have met a large number of farmers who now speak Spanish very well. Rather than the workers learning French and English, the farmers have learned to speak Spanish so they can communicate properly. We want to ensure that these workers are better integrated. Last year, funding was provided to non-profit organizations such as Actions interculturelles in my region. These organizations have supported workers in their communities.

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