Ottawa, ON – The Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) welcomes a number of announcements in the 2023 Federal Budget, with investments made in transportation logistics, animal health emergency preparedness, and an increase in interest-free limit under the Advance Payments Program to help producers’ rising costs.
“The investments announced in the 2023 Federal Budget respond to a number of critical issues facing Canadian agriculture, such as emergency preparedness, climate change and supply chain logistics. We are pleased to see some long-term solutions put forward for emerging issues, such as establishing a Foot-and-Mouth disease Vaccine Bank and a Transportation Supply Chain Office. At the same time, short-term relief has been provided through investments in the Advance Payments Program and the piloting of extended interswitching limits in the prairie provinces. Our hope is certainly that these temporary measures will translate into long-term solutions for what are long-term challenges,” said Keith Currie, CFA President.
The Budget also provides clarity on how the $34.1 million generated from the tariff on Russian fertilizer imports will be reinvested into primary agriculture, through new funding to the On-Farm Climate Action Fund to support nitrogen management.
“While there will be some producers across Canada that would have liked to see those funds reinvested in a fashion that more directly responds to the financial challenges, we are certainly pleased to see some much needed clarity and reinvestment of these funds back into the hands of Canadian producers,” Currie added.
In addition to these immediate investments, Budget 2023 also sets out a path for further engagement on a number of critical topics for Canadian producers, including right to repair, natural disaster protection, biofuels and intergenerational transfers.
CFA will be working closely with the Government of Canada to follow-up on these commitments and ensure their implementation is effective and benefits producers across Canada. CFA has also partnered with the government in the development of the Sustainable Agriculture Strategy and looks to this process to identify areas of critical investment to support resilience and sustainability in agriculture in future budgets.
Source : CFA-FCA