Hon. Tony Loffreda: Minister Bibeau, welcome to the Senate. Ukraine is known as Europe’s breadbasket, and the war in Ukraine has many concerned. To what extent can Canada compensate for the lack of global wheat supply caused by this war? Are you having or undertaking discussions on this matter with your European and global counterparts and our wheat producers? As we know, after Russia, Canada is the largest wheat exporter in the world.

Hon. Marie-Claude Bibeau, P.C., M.P., Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food: I understand very well what you are talking about — the customs tariff of 35% being imposed on Russian fertilizer as it is included in our financial sanctions against Russia.

First, we acknowledge it was very important to make sure that this fertilizer was coming to Canada. That was the first issue. It is a matter of food security. We did what was necessary to let the boats get to the Canadian ports, and the fertilizers reach the farmers.

What we’ve also done quickly — and I’m still looking at other options with my colleagues — is a modification to the advance payment program. This program is meant to support grain producers and horticultural — fruit and vegetable — producers to have access to an interest-free loan of up to $100,000; it could go up to a loan of $1 million.

Normally, they can get this loan in two payments, one in April, more or less, and one in July when they confirm what they have really planted, based on the revenue they expect for the coming fall. So we have allowed them to get 100% of this loan as soon as they submitted their request. So that was a quick change that has been made to a program. I’m still looking at different options with my colleagues.

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