Budget 2019: Agriculture Broad Strokes

IPolitics’ Kelsey Johnson digs into what Budget 2019 means for Canada’s agriculture industry as well as rural Canadians. Here’s a broad-strokes overview.

By Kelsey Johnson – iPolitics

Supply Management Compensation.

Four years after Stephen Harper’s Conservatives promised Canadian dairy, egg and poultry farmers $4.3 billion in compensation for trade concessions made, the Trudeau government has agreed to a similar amount of funding.

Budget 2019 includes a total of $3.9 billion in compensation money, including $2.15 billion in direct compensation (in addition to the $250 million in innovation funding already given to Canada’s dairy industry) and another $1.5 billon in funding to protect quota value upon sale.

For more details about the funding, click here.

“Four years after Stephen Harper’s Conservatives promised Canadian dairy, egg and poultry farmers $4.3 billion in compensation for trade concessions made, the Trudeau government has agreed to a similar amount of funding. ”

 

National Food Policy

The federal government has unveiled $134.4 million in new funding to create a new national food policy for Canada. It will focus on ensuring Canadians have better access to healthy foods, tackle food waste, promote Canadian agriculture products at home and abroad, and work to increase food security.

For more a more detailed look at the proposed policy, click here

Broadband Internet

The federal government wants 95 per cent of Canadians to have access to internet speeds of at least 50/10 mbs by 2026 and 100 per cent by 2030, regardless of location.

The funding includes $1.7 billion over 13 years to increase Canada’s internet infrastructure to rural and remote communities as well as secure new satellite technology.

Another $11.5 million has been promised over five years to allow Statistics Canada to conduct two surveys looking at how Canadians use the internet at home and in business.

Meanwhile, Canada’s Infrastructure Bank is looking to stimulate private-sector investment in high-speed internet projects. Budget 2019 notes the Bank will “seek to invest $1 billion over the next 10 years, and leverage at least $2 billion in additional private sector investment” for the file.

Poor internet access in rural and remote communities has repeatedly been flagged as barrier to Canadian economic growth. The issue was the focus of a detailed, multi-party report from the House industry committee in April 2018.

The Agriculture and Agri-Food Economic Strategy Table report also called on the federal government to increase internet access in its September 2018 report.

Regulatory Reform

Budget 2019 includes new details around the Trudeau government’s plan to modernize Canada’s regulatory framework. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Transport Canada and Health Canada are getting up to $219.1 million over five years, starting next year, to develop new regulatory roadmaps aimed at streamlining regulations and updating its systems.

The roadmaps come after the federal government announced in Budget 2018 it wanted to review regulations that affected agri-food and aquaculture, health and biosciences and transportation and infrastructure.

More details about the roadmaps will be released in the coming weeks. To ensure they can be completed, the Department of Justice is getting $67.8 million in funding over five years, starting in 2019-20 to enhance Canada’s drafting capacity.

Of note for Canadian agriculture: the proposed reviews included updating Canadian grain regulations and digitizing CFIA’s services. The agency currently relies on paper-based export certificates. Industry has been demanding the system be moved online to allow for more rapid export.

Meanwhile the Canada Grain Act hasn’t been updated in decades. “A broad-based review of the Act, and the operations of the Canadian Grain Commission,” will be undertaken to address a number of issues raised by the Canadian grain industry,” budget documents note, “including redundant inspections and issues with the current grain classification process that unnecessarily restrict Canadian grain exporters.”

The Treasury Board Secretariat is also getting $3.1 million per year in ongoing funding, starting in 2020-21 to improve regulatory harmonization with Canada’s international trading partners and inter-provincially.

Research Funding

The Trudeau government is creating a new Strategic Science Fund that will launch in 2022-23. Few details are included in Budget 2019. The fund, documents said, was created as a direct response to feedback the government received from third-party research and science organizations.

The fund will be applied by an “independent panel of experts, including scientists and innovators, who will advise the government on how funding should be allocated to third-party science and research groups.”

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)

Budget 2019 includes two funding renewals for Canada’s food safety watchdog. The federal government is committing $199 million over five years to “maintain its world class inspection programs” designed to protect the agriculture industry against an outbreak of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), or ‘Mad Cow Disease.’

CFIA is also seeing funding renewed for its Daily Shift Inspection Presence Program, which provides additional food safety inspection resources at all Canadian meat processing facilities that export meat to the United States.

Mental Health

While Budget 2019 does not specifically mention mental health in agriculture, the federal government has pledged $25 million over five years, starting in 2019-20, for a pan-Canadian suicide prevention service. The funding would allow for 24/7 bilingual crisis support from trained responders using their technology of choice (talk, text or chat).

Food Processing

The federal government’s new Strategic Innovation Fund, announced as part of November’s Fall Economic Statement, will see $100 million, or about an eight of the fund, earmarked for Canada’s food processing sector.

Western Economic Diversification

As part of the federal government’s economic growth strategy for Western Canada, the federal government is promising $100 million over three years, starting in 2019-20. The funding will be dispersed via the government’s Western Economic Diversification department. The money will be earmarked for projects across a broad-range of sectors, including agriculture.

The government has also set aside $1 million dollars in 2019-20 to allow the department to develop a new strategy to “sustainably manage water and land in the Prairies.” This will be developed with input from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as well as Indigenous groups, academics and private sector groups.

Genomics

Genome Canada is getting $100.5 million over five years, starting in 2020-21. The money will help support not-for-profit operation and allow it to “launch new large-scale research competitions and projects.”