Agriculture Ministers Ready For The Challenges Of 2021

Jan 06, 2021

Saskatchewan's Agriculture Minister David Marit says after 2020 everyone is ready for a new year.

He says there's a lot of issues for the Province to continue working on in 2021 for the Agriculture sector.

Marit says there's always the obvious issues like the B-R-M's, Carbon tax etc, but they'll also continue their focus on research, launching the new irrigation projects and working on attracting new value added processing.

"It's important for us to find ways to attract that investment into the Province of Saskatchewan, which leads to jobs. Leads to a lot of jobs, a lot of skilled labour jobs. I think it's important for us, I think there's great opportunity in the Ag tech sector. I think we are just seeing this grow leaps and bounds."

He says he's also excited about the three new international trade offices opening and what that could mean for the Province and the agriculture sector.

Meantime, Agriculture Minister Devin Dreeshen says attracting more investment in value added opportunities is also on the agenda in Alberta.

"That's everything from fertilizer plants to more cattle processing plants, to canola crush plants, even to hemp processing plants. We're really trying to attract that Global capital that's out there and trying to have them set up shop here in Alberta. It's great for job opportunities, as well as economic opportunities for farmers and ranchers."

He notes obviously B-R-M programming reforms and finding a replacement program for AgriStability is going to be big.

Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau says she has a number of issues on her plate in 2021.

She highlighted a few of those during her year-end interview.

"I hope I'll be able to finalize the improvement to AgriStability," she said. "African swine fever remains a very important file. We want to work closely with the industry and with the provinces to avoid having this disease in our territory, but if it ever comes, we will be ready. The climate plan will definitely be a big part of my work in the coming months and year."

Bibeau notes it remains challenging to do business with China.

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