The Mark Carney led Liberal government in Ottawa unveiled its first budget week, and agriculture actually featured more significantly than one might have anticipated.
The two most obvious items have direct farm implications.
- The federal government proposes to increase the AgriStability compensation rate to 90 per cent from 80 per cent and the payment cap per farm to $6 million from $3 million.
- The Advance Payments Program for canola will see $97.5 million spent over two years to increase the interest-free limit on advances to $500,000 for the 2025 and 2026 program years.
But it is what might be called agriculture-adjacent items within the budget which might off the greatest intrigue for farmers.
Not surprisingly given the upheaval and uncertainty caused by the prone to change his mind US president Donald Trump, the budget sets a goal to double non-U.S. exports over 10 years.
This is a forced measure to be sure, but even if Trump is out of office at some point – you don’t have to be too far into conspiracy theories to at least wonder if he will leave office quietly – it’s appositive. Growing exports beyond the US simply diversifies options for Canada if things were to settle back to a pre-Trump reality.
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