Question Period Note: AAFC ACCOMPLISHMENTS 2016-2025

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• Across this great country, each and every day, over 200,000 farm families get up before the sun comes up, and work hard to put fresh, nutritious food on our tables.

• We deliver the very best agricultural products, all while caring for our planet. And not only that -- farmers drive our economy with over $90 billion in farmgate sales and $100.3 billion in agri-food and seafood exports.

• Canada's food system is resilient and innovative. It sustains our environment and supports our economy. In 2025, the whole agriculture and agri-food industry:
o employed 2.3 million people;
o provided 1 in 9 jobs in Canada; and
o generated $150.0 billion (around 7%) of Canada's gross domestic product.
Budget 2025 Key Investments
• Today, Canadian farmers face significant economic challenges, including a changing climate and a shifting trade environment. But there are also historic opportunities to grow and transform the industry.

• Budget 2025 includes more than $639 million over the next five years for enhanced supports and key investments to build a stronger Canadian agriculture. This support includes:

o $109.2 million to increase the compensation rate of the federal-provincial-territorial AgriStability Program, from 80 to 90 per cent, and double the per-farm payment cap to $6 million, to protect farmers against losses that are not in their control.

o $97.5 million over 2 years to temporarily increase the Advance Payments Program interest-free limit to $500,000 for canola advances, to support producers hurt by trade disruptions. The interest-free limit for all advances has been increased to $250,000 for the 2025 program year, giving producers more flexibility to manage their cash flow.

o $75 million over 5 years for the AgriMarketing Program to enhance the diversification and promotion of Canada’s agriculture, agri-food, fish and seafood products into new markets.

o $372 million over 2 years to support the stability and resiliency of domestic producers of biodiesel and renewable diesel.

• In addition, funding amendments are also being proposed for the AgriStability Program to provide $8 million over 5 years (2026-2031) to make pasture-related feed costs eligible.

• The Government is proposing $1 billion in new lending available to farmers facing a volatile trade environment through Farm Credit Canada’s new Trade Disruption Customer Support Program, which was launched in March 2025.

• The Government also proposed amendments to the Farm Credit Act to require regular legislative reviews that will meet the evolving needs of the sector in times of instability.

• The Budget includes $307.9 million over 2 years for the Youth Employment Strategy, which will provide around 20,000 youth with employment, training, mentorship and counselling every year. This strategy also supports AAFC’s Youth Employment and Skills Program.

Broader Budget 2025 investments supporting agriculture
• $925.6 million over 5 years to support public artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

• $440 million in tax incentives through scientific research and experimental development to help innovative businesses scale up and grow.

• a set of enhanced tax deductions called Productivity Super-Deduction to allow businesses to write off more of their capital investments more quickly.

• $1.7 billion under the International Talent Attraction Strategy to recruit over 1,000 highly qualified international researchers to Canada.
AAFC accomplishments since March 2025
• To help fulfill the Government’s commitment to aggressively expand exports of Canadian agriculture and seafood products, particularly beyond the United States, I participated in trade missions to five countries, including China, Mexico, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines. There, I met with world leaders and senior government officials to strengthen trade relationships, open new markets for Canadian producers, and support the growth of the agriculture and seafood sectors internationally.

• As well, more than $44 million in federal-provincial-territorial investments have been made under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, supporting:

o Research and innovation;
o Sustainable land use;
o The growth of agri-businesses and exporters;
o Environmental sustainability and energy efficiency;
o Food safety and traceability and;
o Youth as future farmers and entrepreneurs.
Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership

• The Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP) is a $3.5-billion, 5-year agreement (April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2028), between the federal, provincial and territorial (FPT) governments to strengthen the competitiveness, innovation, and resiliency of the agriculture, agri‐food and agri‐based products sector. The agreement includes $1 billion in federal programs and activities and $2.5 billion in cost-shared programs and activities funded by FPT governments.

• Key areas and programs supporting sector growth include:

Growing trade and expanding markets:
o The AgriMarketing Program helps industry expand exports and seize new market opportunities

o The AgriCompetitiveness Program helps industry share information with producers to build capacity and support the sector

Innovative and sustainable growth of the sector:
o The AgriInnovate Program supports commercialization, demonstration, and adoption of innovative technologies and processes

AgriScience Program:
o Clusters Component
o Projects Component
o Accelerates the pace of innovation by providing funding and support for pre-commercial science activities and research that benefit the agriculture and agri-food sector and Canadians

Supporting diversity and a dynamic, evolving sector:
o The AgriDiversity Program helps underrepresented groups participate in the sector

The AgriAssurance Program:
o National Industry Association Component
o Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Component
o Helps foster public trust in the safety of Canadian agri-food products and how they are produced

Canadian Agricultural Partnership

• We collaborated with provinces and territories to launch the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) to strengthen and grow Canada's agriculture and agri-food sector through a $3 billion, five-year agreement (2018-2023).

• CAP included simplified and streamlined programs and services that were easier to access, as well as program improvements to help farmers manage significant risks that threatened the viability of their farms and exceeded their capacity to manage.

• CAP provided $2 billion in FPT cost-shared strategic initiatives as well as $1 billion for federal activities and programs.

• Federal activities and programs included:

o $297 million to grow trade and expand markets, through AgriMarketing and AgriCompetitiveness.

o $690 million to advance innovative and sustainable growth in the sector through AgriInnovate and AgriScience.

o $166.5 million to support diversity and a dynamic, evolving sector, through the AgriDiversity and AgriAssurance programs.
Risk Management

• The increase in extreme weather events associated with climate change is having a significant impact on agricultural production. Canadian farmers are on the front lines of extreme weather, and events such as hurricanes, flooding, droughts, and wildfires affect their bottom lines directly.

• To help farmers manage these significant financial risks, we unlocked new benefits from our business risk management programs, allowing producers to access larger up-front payments from AgriStability, defer taxes on livestock sales, and cope with high input costs through an increased interest-free portion of the Advance Payments Program.

• To mitigate the real risk of animal disease faced by livestock producers, we provided funding through the African Swine Fever Industry Preparedness Program to support Canadian pork producers in preparing for the possibility of African swine fever entering the country and continued to engage with key partners to strengthen emergency management preparedness in agriculture.

Support for the Environment

• The Government of Canada is committed to continuing to support farmers and producers to reduce emissions, adapt to a changing climate, implement climate-smart farming practices, and grow the economy.

• We have taken bold action, including investing more than $1.5 billion towards initiatives that will help farmers and processors reduce their environmental footprint, adopt clean technologies, and collaborate with researchers in 'living labs', a model pioneered in Canada to promote sustainable practices. These include:

• The $429.4-million Agricultural Clean Technology Program, with two streams:
 The Adoption Stream funds the purchase and installation of commercially available clean technologies and processes.
 The Research and Innovation Stream funds pre-market innovation, including research, development, demonstration and commercialization activities.

• The $185-million Agricultural Climate Solutions – Living Labs Program provides support to co-develop, test and enable adoption of technologies and practices that sequester carbon and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Building on the success of the previous Living Laboratories Initiative introduced in 2018, we launched five new Living Labs in 2022, bringing the total to 14 across Canada, and bringing researchers, farmers and partners together to develop sustainable practices that align with effective farming practices.

• The $704.1-million Agricultural Climate Solutions – On-Farm Climate Action Fund supports farmers in adopting beneficial management practices that store carbon and reduce greenhouse gases, specifically in the areas of nitrogen management, cover cropping and rotational grazing practices.

• The $12-million Agricultural Methane Reduction Challenge launched in 2023 to invest in innovative, scalable, and economically viable practices, processes, and technologies that reduce enteric methane emissions from the cattle sector, specifically cow-calf operations, feedlots, and dairy.

• In collaboration with a wide range of partners, we are developing a Sustainable Agriculture Strategy to provide an integrated and coordinated approach to improving the agriculture sector's environmental performance and supporting its long-term vitality.

• Announced in 2024, Canada became a founding member of the Efficient Fertilizer Consortium, an international public-private partnership that funds research to advance novel fertilizer products and practices, helping farmers produce healthy crops while reducing impacts to the environment.

Trade

• Since 2015, Canada’s agri-food and seafood exports have almost doubled to more than $100 billion despite historic challenges faced by farmers, including extreme weather, high input prices, livestock disease, and more.

• Thanks to the key trade agreements we have delivered over the past nine years with North America, Europe, and the Trans-Pacific, Canada is currently the only G7 country with comprehensive free trade access to the entire G7 and European Union. Our 15 free trade agreements cover 51 countries, almost two-thirds of the world's GDP and some 1.5 billion consumers worldwide.

• We have also signed the Indonesia-Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.

• On the international stage, we continue to work to support our farmers and food processors to increase and diversify their sales while meeting the world’s growing demand for sustainable food. We refreshed our Canada Brand program and opened the first-ever Indo-Pacific Agriculture and Agri-Food Office to strengthen ties in this fast-growing region.

• We continued working closely with Global Affairs Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to remove non-tariff barriers to trade, resulting in successes such as the full restoration of our beef trade in Japan and Guatemala, enhanced access in Taiwan, canola to Pakistan and apples and pet food to Mexico.

• We continue to press hard to remove unjustified trade barriers. For example,

o Our canola, seafood, pork and pea exports to China; and
o Our pulse lentils to India.

• I recently travelled to China and met with the Minister of the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China and highlighted the importance of restoring market access for Canadian agricultural products in China. I also met with Huang Sanwen, President of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

• While there, I attended the opening of the new Canadian Meat Advocacy Office and visited the Canada Pavilion at the China Fisheries and Seafood Expo, where I heard directly from stakeholders. Throughout the mission, I reiterated that Canada is committed to engaging in constructive dialogue with China on bilateral trade matters.

Support to Supply-Managed Sectors

• The Government of Canada has delivered on its commitment to fully and fairly compensate producers and processors who have lost market share under the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).

• Compensation programs began in 2017. The total compensation will exceed $4.8 billion and includes:
o For dairy farmers:
 $2.95 billion through the Dairy Direct Payment Program
 $250 million through the Dairy Farm Investment Program

o For poultry and egg producers:
 $759 million through the Poultry and Egg On-Farm Investment Program
 $44 million through the Market Development Program for Turkey and Chicken

o For processors of supply-managed commodities:
 up to $333 million through the Dairy Innovation and Investment Fund
 $397.5 million through the Supply Management Processing Investment Fund
 $100 million through the Dairy Processing Investment Fund

Support for Canada’s wine sector

• We recognize the wine sector’s important economic contributions, including providing business opportunities and jobs for grape growers and wine makers across Canada.

• To ensure continued support for the sector, in March 2024, the Government of Canada announced an extension to the Wine Sector Support Program, investing up to an additional $177 million over 3 years, ending March 31, 2027.

• This $343 million, five-year program helps federally licenced Canadian wineries adapt to ongoing and emerging challenges impacting their financial resilience and competitiveness by providing grants based on their previous year’s wine production.

Food Policy for Canada:

The first-ever Food Policy for Canada was launched in 2019, with a vision that all people in Canada can access a sufficient amount of safe, nutritious, and culturally diverse food. Initiatives include:
o The Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council, which brings together diverse perspectives to support the implementation of the policy.

o The first phase of the Local Food Infrastructure Fund, which was a five-year, $70-million initiative to support community-based, not-for-profit organizations with a mission to reduce food insecurity by establishing and strengthening their local food system. This phase supported over 1,100 projects to improve food security across Canada, such as: community gardens and kitchens; refrigerated trucks and storage units for donated food; greenhouses in remote and Northern communities; and more.

o As part of a $62.9-million announcement in Budget 2024, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada will deliver the next phase of the Local Food Infrastructure Fund ($42.7M) and the new School Food Infrastructure Fund ($20.2M) aimed at supporting community-based not-for-profit organizations working to improve local food security for Canadians of all ages.

o The $20-million Food Waste Reduction Challenge to accelerate and advance diverse and high-impact solutions to food waste in Canada. Two winners from the Challenge’s Business Models Streams and two winners from the Novel Technologies Streams were selected and announced in 2024.

o The $25-million Taste the Commitment digital marketing campaign, which highlights the sector’s efforts to be more resilient, adaptable, and sustainable.

o The three-year, $8-million AgriCommunication Program focused on supporting activities which promoted appreciation and pride in the contributions of farmers and the food industry and enhanced public trust. These activities helped strengthen public trust around the origin of our food and how it is produced. Research conducted in 2023 to explore consumer attitudes indicated that a majority of Canadians agree that it is important that Canada’s agriculture is growing and successful, Canada’s farmers and ranchers are a source of pride, and that they are proud of the food and beverages produced in Canada.

o $24.4 million over 5 years to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to crack down on food fraud in order to protect consumers from deception and shield companies from unfair competition.

o Preliminary measures to build a pan-Canadian school food policy together with provincial/territorial governments, Indigenous partners, and stakeholders.

Grocery Code of Conduct

• After years of work and unprecedented collaboration, stakeholders across the supply chain, including Canada’s five largest grocery retailers, many regional and small grocers, and key suppliers, have committed to joining the Grocery Code.

• The office supporting the Grocery Code is now operational with full Code implementation and enforcement is to be in place by January 1, 2026.

• Ministers of agriculture agreed to provide $1.2 million in short-term funding to support the Office of the Grocery Sector Code of Conduct.

• The organization’s first President and Adjudicator has been named – Karen Proud, who has extensive leadership experience in the retail and manufacturing sectors.

• The Grocery Code will bring more fairness, transparency and stability to our grocery sector. Our Government will continue to support industry progress to ensure Canada has a resilient supply chain that benefits everyone.

Support to the Agricultural Sector through COVID-19

• The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted Canada and its economy, posing challenges for farmers and food businesses and disrupting global supply chains. The Canadian agriculture and agri-food sector demonstrated its resilience and adapted to meet these challenges. FPT governments worked to support essential businesses throughout the pandemic.

• Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada delivered emergency programs and adjusted existing programs to help the agriculture and agri-food sector maintain cash flow and workforces, keep facilities and workers safe, manage processing and production slowdowns, and support food security organizations.

o The Emergency Processing Fund was delivered to help companies respond to the urgent health and safety needs of workers in food processing facilities impacted by COVID-19. In 2020–21, the Fund supported organizations, co-operatives and Indigenous groups involved in Canadian food production to adapt to health protocols and access personal protective equipment in order to safeguard the health and safety of workers and automate or modernize their facilities or operations to increase Canada’s food supply capacity.

o The $35-million Emergency On-Farm Support Fund boosted protections for domestic and temporary foreign workers and address COVID-19 outbreaks on farms.

o Up to $125 million in federal support was made available to producers through AgriRecovery to help them with extraordinary costs incurred as a result of the pandemic. This support included $100 million in federal assistance for livestock producers.

o The 2020 enrollment deadline for the AgriStability program was extended, and interim payments were increased in most jurisdictions from 50 to 75 percent.

o To ensure adequate labour for the Canadian food supply chain and to protect workers, the Department launched the Mandatory Isolation Support for Temporary Foreign Workers Program in 2020. This one-time, $50-million program assisted employers in the farming, fish harvesting, and food production and processing sectors with some of the incremental costs associated with the mandatory 14-day isolation period imposed on temporary foreign workers arriving from abroad.

o Additional funding was provided through the 2020 Fall Economic Statement, and the 2021 Federal Budget, increasing the total investment to $142 million and extending the program to August 31, 2021.

The Government also took action to promote food security and support the agricultural sector through:

o The $330 million Emergency Food Security Fund, which provided funding to six food organizations who were then able to further support over 5,000 organizations across the country to improve food access for Canadians experiencing food insecurity as a result of the pandemic. Indigenous Services Canada received $30 million from this funding to bolster food security as part of its Indigenous Community Support Fund.

o The Surplus Food Rescue Program, a $50-million initiative, which provided funding to nine projects across Canada to redistribute inventories of perishable food such as potatoes, meat, and seafood to local food organizations serving vulnerable Canadians. Of the total investment, 12 percent funded projects in Northern communities, surpassing the program's original target of 10 percent. More than 7 million kilograms of food was redistributed to more than 1300 local food service organizations across Canada, including more than 250 located in the North.

Producer Mental Wellbeing Initiative

• The $3-million Producer Mental Wellbeing Initiative (PMWI), delivered by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, in partnership with the Privy Council Office's Impact Canada, is a 3-year initiative aimed to bring forward collaborative solutions that use creative, data-based approaches to help improve the wellbeing of producers; reduce the stigma around mental health in agriculture; raise awareness; and offer the support producers need, when they need it.

Canadian Agricultural Youth Council

• It’s been five years since the first cohort of the Canadian Agricultural Youth Council met for the first time. Now in the midst of the third cohort, over 40 young Canadians have provided the youth perspective on issues ranging from attracting young people to Canadian agriculture, to food security, to environment and climate change, and agricultural data.

• They have represented Canada’s youth domestically and internationally, navigating through a changing landscape for Canadian agriculture, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain issues, and trade disruptions.
• Established in 2020, the CAYC provides a forum for the next generation of leaders in agriculture to share their personal experiences, unique perspectives, and innovative ideas on how to tackle issues affecting youth from across the sector.

• Council membership is comprised of a diverse group of young Canadians, and includes the voices of women, Indigenous peoples and other marginalized and underrepresented groups involved in agriculture and agri-food, giving members a platform to have their voices heard, and to inform government policy and decision-making.

• The council meets virtually or in person every two to three months to discuss issues that matter to them, their peers, their community and sector, and their country.