PMRA, country-of-origin labelling and rail strike priorities as federal, provincial and territorial ministers meet July 17-19
REGINA — Canada’s agriculture ministers meet next week in Whitehorse, but it seems unlikely there will be fireworks of the agricultural policy kind.
The Whitehorse meeting happens once every 11 years, and the last two have been notable.
The first Agriculture Policy Framework was signed there in 2001, launching the then-Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program and others. It established the five-year agreements, rather than leaving it to farmer protests and provincial requests for ad hoc funding.
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Eleven years later, ministers signed Growing Forward 2 at Whitehorse. It substantially reduced farm support through AgriStability by lowering the compensation trigger from 85 per cent to 70 per cent.
This time around, the country is just 15 months into the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership and renegotiation is not yet on the table. There could be tweaks to certain programs, but Keith Currie, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, said the federal election slated for fall 2025 puts large-scale investment in doubt.
There has been talk about the future of AgriRecovery, the framework governments use to assist with extraordinary costs from natural disasters.
Currie said producers have two issues with the program. The first is there usually isn’t enough money to actually help them get back up and running.
“But the bigger issue is responsiveness. It’s just slow in responding,” he said.
“Maybe we need to start looking at a stand-alone program, that’s outside the suite of BRM programming, for disaster relief.”
The CFA, which holds a roundtable with ministers ahead of the meeting, wants them to consider investment in a pan-Canadian strategy for data and connectivity. Despite promises, rural and remote areas are not as well connected as they should be to conduct business, said Currie.
He doesn’t expect to see a final Sustainable Agriculture Strategy at next week’s meeting. Farm organizations are aligned on what they want, he said.
“It’s in the hands of (Agriculture Canada) and the government, and I think they need to figure out how to attach a dollar figure to it,” Currie said.
“We’ve been waiting on this thing for two or three years now, and there’s a lot of people in agriculture looking at this as sort of the path forward of where we’re going to go in our framework of programming.”
Saskatchewan agriculture minister David Marit said he is taking concerns about the Pest Management Regulatory Agency review process and specifically its decision about lambda-cyhalothrin.
“If there’s something that’s going to be deregistered, we really obviously want to make sure we have something comparable to come on stream, and then we’re challenged around the price of it and does it work as well,” he said.
He also has concerns about a possible rail strike.
Manitoba minister Ron Kostyshyn, whose first FPT was 2012 in Whitehorse, is returning after the NDP win last fall.
He said country-of-origin labeling is a high priority and he will ask Ottawa to accelerate conversations with the United States.
He is also concerned about preparation for foreign animal disease and said having all the ministers at the table ensures the effort is co-ordinated.
Alberta’s R.J. Sigurdson said in an emailed statement that is a priority for him, too, as is the long-term sustainability of BRM programs, and crop protection and pesticides.
“Alberta works closely with other jurisdictions to ensure we are united on issues that have the potential to impact producers across the country. An important priority is producer access to business risk management programs that are responsive, simple, equitable and timely,” he said.
Ontario is sending a new minister to the meeting. Rob Flack took over in early June.
