The annual meeting of Canada's Agriculture Ministers wrapped up Friday morning in Halifax, Nova Scotia, following two days of meetings covering a wide range of topics from business risk management programs (BRM's) to trade.
During the news conference Friday, Federal Agriculture Minister Heath McDonald announced the next steps in developing the Next Policy Framework through what's called the "Halifax Statement", an outline of the vision, guiding principles, and priorities of what the next framework will look like.
It will eventually replace the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP) when it expires in the spring of 2028.
The vision of the Halifax Statement is "a world-leading agriculture, agri-food, agri-based products sector that is competitive, innovative, resilient, and drives economic growth".
Priorities focus on driving economic growth, diversifying markets, advancing science & research, and enhancing sector resilience.
The guiding principles are geared toward collaboration on all levels, being more responsive to emerging needs of farmers, building on relationships with Indigenous Peoples, streamlining administrative processes to improve program delivery, and ensure there is accountability and results.
"The goal is to build a framework that provides the flexibility to respond to regional priorities and evolving needs of the agriculture sector, while supporting long-term success and sustainability." said McDonald, who then announced an agreement in principle made by the Ministers to "take necessary steps to bring forward Agri-Stability changes."
Potential changes include the addition of "non-arm's length labour and contract work" as a eligible expense and increasing the Agri-Stability maximum payment cap from $3 million to $6 million.
McDonald said the possible change related to contract work "change would recognize compensation paid to family members for work performed on the farm, better reflecting the realities of family-run operations, and ensuring labor costs are appropriately captured under the program. Making contract work, like cutting hay, an eligible expense, reflects on-farm realities and makes the program more responsive to the needs of producers."
On possibly adjusting the Agri-Stability payment, he added it would "reflect significant growth in farm size and production costs since the current payment limit was introduced, helping ensure producers have access to the support they need to recover from significant disasters and market disruptions."
The hope is to have a decision made on these proposed changes for the 2027 program year, McDonald said.
On trade, McDonald says "in light of ongoing trade uncertainty, tariffs, and supply chain disruptions" the group re-affirmed support for keeping the ag sector "competitive and resilient" through maintaining and expanding trade in international markets as well as supporting opportunities "to increase internal trade."
The Ministers also talked about the Grocery Code of Conduct, the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, and progress on strengthening and updating Canada's food system.
