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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • AUGUST 2018


Business risks loom large at national meeting BC co-hosts annual meeting of agriculture ministers amid trade, labour woes


by PETER MITHAM


VANCOUVER – The annual meeting of federal, provincial and territorial agriculture ministers took place in Vancouver this year, and business risk was high on the agenda.


The meeting concluded July 20 with a commitment of $55 million for the AgriRisk Initiatives Program, the federal-provincial program designed to help farmers mitigate business risks. But the key questions ministers were asked through the three-day gathering focused on trade and labour. These issues were at the


forefront of Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Ron Bonnett’s hopes for the meeting. He said he would consider the ministers’ meeting a success if it led to extension of Ottawa’s business risk management programs review, development of contingency plans for international trade


and a firm commitment from Ottawa and the provinces to advance an agri-food economic strategy drafted by Murad Al-Katib of Saskatchewan pulse processor AGT Food and Ingredients Inc. that proposes a 50-year vision for the sector’s infrastructure needs. So far as business risk


programming was concerned, MacAulay delivered. “Our government is launching a renewed, $55 million AgriRisk program to protect our hardworking farmers from the risks they face. The announcement responds to what we heard from the external advisory panel on business risk management,” MacAulay said. Industry-led projects to


develop new and innovative risk management tools will enjoy priority. Specific recommendations


from the panel weren’t revealed to media but the meeting directed government officials to continue working


and report back when ministers meet in Quebec City in July 2019. The proposed agri-food economic strategy also received endorsement. A working group chaired


by Al-Katib was appointed last August to prepare the strategy. BC members of the group include Ratana Stephens, co-owner of Nature’s Path Foods Inc. in Richmond, and producers Gary Baars and Jack Froese. Work to date has identified


innovation and value-added processing, infrastructure, access to markets and labour as key issues. The ministers’ meeting applauded the work done to date and committed to ongoing collaboration with industry as the strategy continues to take shape. The emphasis on value- added processing emerged as a key element in efforts to address ongoing issues in export markets. With the meeting co-chaired by BC agriculture minister Lana


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Popham, ministers heard about Indigenous agriculture initiatives in BC that are helping make those communities more resilient. However, a fresh emphasis


on growing domestic markets across the country also took centre stage. Ottawa has pledged to boost agri-food exports to $75 billion by 2025, and MacAulay expects to exceed that target. An "Eat Canadian" marketing program rolled out in 2012 in partnership with grocers but growing domestic markets has typically had a lower profile. “We sometimes get really hung on setting targets for export markets, but in the presentation there was a lot of emphasis on how we can capture domestic markets as well,” Bonnett said. “They recognized that there was that parallel need to develop the export and the domestic [markets]. And actually, some of growth targets they were talking about for the


domestic were pretty substantial.” MacAulay pointed to


poultry and egg consumption as an example, which has increased 10% since last year. He believes the dedicated work of farmers can do the same for other products. “There are no specific


targets set, but the fact is you can look at what happened in the chicken industry,” he told Country Life in BC. “The fact is if we do it right and work hard at it, we can increase the consumption within our country of Canadian products.” The efforts of farmers


dovetail with growing interest among consumers in buying local, Popham added. “There’s a huge interest, a


resurgence of interest, among consumers in local food, and that allows us to have that opportunity also to market our products domestically right across Canada,” she said. “It’s an exciting time. I consider it the moment for agriculture that we’ve been waiting for.”


But people are also waiting


for labour, and MacAulay says government is trying to streamline processes to ensure foreign workers can come in if no one in Canada wants the work. “These are issues that we


have to continue to work on, and to make sure we streamline it. We have made some progress, and we need to make more progress,” he said.


Reg Ens of the BC


Agriculture Council couldn’t agree more. “There’s still some


problems,” he said following industry’s meeting with ministers. “It’s the high- volume, short-season crops that are having the biggest problem, and it’s not all a Canadian government issue. Some of it’s a Mexican government issue. It’s bureaucracy throughout.” While Ens is optimistic that issues will be resolved, a new initiative that will collect biometric data from seasonal workers before they leave Mexico could create new hassles in 2019. The data will have to be


collected in Mexico City, meaning an extra trip for applicants who want to make their annual trip to Canada.


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