Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald is going to have to produce results, an ag policy analyst says
With Parliament scheduled to resume on Monday, Sept. 15, Farms.com spoke with Tyler McCann, managing director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute, about current issues affecting ag and how those could translate into the House of Commons.
Overall, McCann expects the fall session to be intense.
“I think it’ll be a very charged environment,” he told Farms.com. “Parliament is coming back under a very different context than when it ended. We have the return of Pierre Poilievre to the House, and we have a different relationship with the United States.”
Two items related to agriculture are receiving time in the nightly news cycles.
One is the issue with China and its 75.8 per cent tariff on canola.
The federal government recently announced $370 million of funding to create a biofuel production incentive to support the industry.
This measure has received mixed review from the ag sector with the canola industry voicing concern that it doesn’t address the immediate support farmers require.
Sask. Premier Scott Moe and Kody Blois, parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Carney, are in China meeting with officials about this issue.
This topic could get ample time in the House when it returns, McCann said.
“The negative reaction from canola groups and the outcome of this China trip will influence how it’s talked about in Parliament,” he said. “This is a really good example of the difficult and contentious issues Canada has to navigate, and the government needs to make some choices about.”
Another top-of-mind issue for Canadian ag is the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called for its cancellation last week to free up employment opportunities for young Canadians, while also committing to creating a separate program to support the ag industry.
This issue, related to immigration, is a good political issue which could be negative for ag, McCann said.
“You had B.C. Premier David Eby, and NDP premier, coming out and supporting what the Conservatives were saying, which is not something we’ve seen over the last number of years,” McCann said. “It’s easy when you’re in opposition to throw out claims, but we need clarity. Would a separate program for ag workers include food manufacturing? Or our abattoirs across the country?”
In the House, questions related to agriculture would be directed towards Minister Heath MacDonald.
He’s been in the role for more than 100 days, and so far is hitting the right notes.
“He’s definitely engaged and is talking about issues differently than some of his predecessors have,” McCann said. “He’s making trade a priority, he’s met his counterparts and farmers across the country.”
However, sooner than later he’s going to have to produce tangible outcomes.
Minister MacDonald and his provincial and territorial colleagues are in Winnipeg this week for an FPT meeting.
“We’ll be waiting to see what the ministers agree to,” McCann said. “But eventually all of this outreach and engagement need to turn into results.”
This could prove challenging as the federal government is committed to reducing spending.
The government promised to pull back spending by 15 per cent over three years and requested plans from departments and agencies on how to achieve this.
“The expectation is we’ll see this in the budget and what this means,” McCann said. “But I expect this to be a point of conflict between the point and the sector because hasn’t really laid any of the groundwork about what’s coming or what the priorities are.”
With respect to agriculture, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has released its measures to reduce red tape and overall spending.
The agency’s plan includes “leveraging decisions from trusted foreign jurisdictions to streamline pre-market assessments of certain agricultural products, such as an alternate pathway for the pre-market assessment of certain feed products already approved by the United States and European Union.”
This represents a previous commitment from the CFIA.
McCann would like to see new ideas involved.
“It may be a sign of a missed opportunity,” he said. “My initial read is the CFIA committing to doing things they already promised. If that’s all we’re going to see from government, that’ll be disappointing.”