It appears a review of business risk management programs will continue without a panel that includes farm groups
VANCOUVER — Farm leaders say the decision by Canada’s agriculture ministers to continue reviewing business risk management programs is positive, but they wonder how producers will be involved.
Ministers, at their annual meeting last week, accepted a report from an external panel of experts appointed six months ago and directed officials to move forward on the panel’s recommendations.
“Ministers thanked the panel for concluding their work,” noted the official communiqué at the close of the meeting, adding, “Ministers remain committed to continued engagement with industry, external experts and other stakeholders.”
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Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Ron Bonnett said he wants more details on what that producer involvement will be if the panel is no longer in place.
“I don’t think we’d like to see that strictly just something that was done by government themselves,” he said July 23. “We’ll be following up in the next few weeks with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and with ministers to ensure that they understand that the only way this can be an effective review is if producers are involved.”
Mark Brock, chair of the AgGrowth Coalition, which includes the CFA, Grain Growers of Canada, the Canadian Canola Growers Association, Grain Farmers of Ontario, the National Sheep Network and the Canadian Horticultural Council, also sat on the 11-member advisory panel and presented the recommendations to the ministers last week.
He said panel members were happy to hear their work would be continued but there are concerns moving forward.
“It’s safe to say there’s some apprehension that there isn’t a formal nod to industry engagement,” he said.
Brock said the panel was able to come with consensus in three meetings and that indicates the maturity within the industry and that the process of engaging industry can work.
“There is now a sense of where to from here,” he said, adding that perhaps there is still an opportunity for a steering committee that includes farmers, as recommended by the panel, to play a role.
Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay said ministers should always be consulting farmers.
“Everybody sitting around the table fully understands that what we need to do is to address the problems not from the top down but from the bottom up,” he said. “I want to hear from the farmer and what the problem is.”
Ministers did act on one of the panel recommendations right away, announcing $55 million for a renewed AgriRisk initiatives program. The panel said producer-paid top-up tools should be explored and that government could encourage that.
AgriRisk encourages public-private partnerships to develop new risk management tools in either research and development or administrative capacity building. Applications are due Sept. 28.
“That, combined with the fact that they’re talking about an ongoing review, I think sort of indicates that they realize the suite of programs we have right now don’t necessarily accurately cover off all of the risks that we have,” said Bonnett.
Other panel recommendations included:
- Exploring ways to address the lack of confidence in the core program, AgriStability.
- Examining ways to improve program equity so that all sectors get coverage.
- Maintaining AgriInvest.
- Modernizing premium setting for AgriInsurance.
- Improving education on risk management.
Saskatchewan deputy agriculture minister Rick Burton said the panel has provided good direction.
“I think there’s some good work for officials to kind of dive into and make some progress on and of course we’ll continue to engage producers throughout that process.”
He said in Saskatchewan, the ministry and Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. meet regularly with producer organizations, and that engagement would continue. He also said all provinces talked about improved engagement with the National Program Advisory Committee.
Bonnett said CFA will continue to ask for a formal engagement process as the business risk management (BRM) review continues.
With the Canadian Agricultural Partnership in place until 2023, it’s unlikely significant changes would be made to BRM programs before then.
Officials are expected to report on their follow-up work at the next federal-provincial-territorial meeting in Quebec City in 2019.
