Bibeau: funds coming for supply-managed sectors

Jul 19, 2019

The federal ag minister made the statement during a press conference Friday

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

The federal government is working out the final details of a financial compensation package for farmers in Canada’s supply managed sectors, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food Marie-Claude Bibeau said today.

“We’re talking about distributing billions of dollars of public funds to thousands of producers across the country, so we have to do it right. I can tell you that we have a team who’s working on it to make it happen as soon as possible,” she said during a press conference in Quebec City, Que. on Friday.

The dairy, poultry and egg sectors each requested different kinds of compensation, which is partly why the process is taking longer than expected. But the government hopes to announce and implement the compensation before the election, Bibeau said.

She made the remarks at the end of the federal-provincial-territorial agriculture ministers’ meeting, where several of Canada’s ag delegates spent two days discussing policy and ways to improve the nation’s ag industry.

Canada's Agriculture Ministers

The ag ministers talked about trade and continuing to work towards full market access in China for Canadian canola and meat.

Restoring trade with China is one of Canada’s main objectives, Bibeau said.

“We keep asking the Chinese officials to provide us with evidence of the (canola) pests they are telling us that they have found in our shipments, but we still haven’t got that type of information,” she said.

Officials have made progress on the Canadian meat imports issue but there hasn’t been much movement on the canola issue, she said.

The ministers also committed to review the suite of business risk management programs.

Though the Canadian Agricultural Partnership is only one-year-old, another meeting is planned for the fall to discuss potential changes to the AgriStability program that could be implemented in 2020.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.