Ottawa is getting ready to roll out the Canadian Agricultural Partnership ahead of its April 1 implementation deadline.
The Canadian government and the provinces agreed to the five-year CAP when agriculture ministers met for their annual federal-provincial-territorial meeting last July.
The agreement, once implemented, will replace the current $3 billion Growing Forward 2, which is set to expire at the end of March.
Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay was set to announce new details about the CAP framework and its programs Feb. 13, after deadlines for this issue, as part of the Agriculture Day in Canada celebrations in Ottawa.
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In November, the federal minister promised to open applications to the various federally funded programs in early 2018 to give producers and bureaucrats time to get the necessary funding in place before April and avoid funding gaps.
“Of course, when the consultations started, one of the first things I was warned about was to make sure that we did not have the lapse that we had previously, because it hurts,” MacAulay told the House agriculture committee Nov. 30.
“It hurts innovation and it hurts research. It hurts all the programs done under Growing Forward 2 that now are under the CAP program,” he continued, adding Ottawa “will be able to roll out money after April 1 to make sure we have continual flow.”
The federal programs, valued at $1 billion combined, include the previously announced AgriMarketing, AgriCompetitiveness, AgriInsurance, AgriDiversity, AgriInnovate and AgriScience. More specifics about these programs were expected Feb. 13.
A review of CAP’s business risk management programs is also underway after MacAulay appointed a special producer advisory committee.
The committee is expected to release an interim report later this spring with its final findings expected to be presented at the ministers’ annual meeting this summer.
New details around the Canadian Agricultural Partnership isn’t the only agriculture-related announcement expected.
Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains was expected to announce Ottawa’s long-awaited picks for federal supercluster funding promised in the 2017 budget. The details were expected Feb. 15.
Two agriculture-related projects are on the short list: one that deals with Smart Agriculture and the other focusing on plant proteins. Both proposals are said to have caught Ottawa’s attention and rumour goes the federal government is expected to fund at least one.
Canada’s agriculture industry was invited to compete for some of the nearly $1 billion in federal funding earmarked for business-led innovation projects aimed at bolstering Canadian economic growth within select industries.
The federal government has flagged this country’s agriculture industry for its economic growth potential. Ottawa has said it wants to grow the sector’s exports to $75 billion by 2025. Industry has said federal innovation funding would help the sector meet that target.
MacAulay has repeatedly said innovation funding is a key part of the agriculture industry’s future potential. Canada’s agriculture sector, he has insisted, has to be on the cutting edge.
Meanwhile, Feb. 13 happens to be Agriculture Day in Canada with producers and industry groups descending on Ottawa to chat farming, trade and the future of the sector.
The day’s activities include a keynote speech from Saskatchewan’s Murad Al-Katib, President of AGT Food and Ingredients Inc. and chair of the Agri-Food Economic Strategy Table.
Al-Katib is heavily involved in the plant-protein related supercluster proposal. He also served as an adviser during Ottawa’s fast-tracked review of the Canadian transportation system, whose related legislation remains under Senate consideration.
