MacAulay launches six federal programs under new Canadian Agriculture Partnership

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With the five-year Growing Forward 2 agriculture framework wrapping up next month, federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay launched six federal programs under the new Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) at the Canada’s Agriculture Day celebration in Ottawa on Tuesday.

CAP is the acronym for the new $3 billion, five-year federal-provincial-territorial agriculture funding agreement that begins on April 1, 2018.

“These initiatives will focus on priorities such as growing trade and expanding markets, innovation and sustainable growth of the sector, and supporting diversity and a dynamic, evolving sector,” explained federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay.

As the minister alluded, the six “Agri-” programs are grouped into three areas (funding amounts in brackets):

  • Growing trade and expanding markets ($297 million) — this money is to be spent on maintaining and expanding markets. This includes the AgriMarketing ($121 million) and AgriCompetitiveness ($20.5 million) programs;
  • Innovative and sustainable growth of the sector ($690 million) — this funding is for research and innovation, with an emphasis on the environment and clean growth. It includes the AgriScience ($338 million) cluster and project funding, as well as the AgriInnovate program ($128 million) for bringing new products to market;
  • Supporting diversity and a dynamic, evolving sector ($166.5 million) — this is funding for public trust-related programs and “strengthening the sector by better reflecting the diversity of Canadian communities.” Up to $5 million has been committed “to help under-represented groups in Canadian agriculture” through a new AgriDiversity program. Up to $74 million has been allocated for the AgriAssurance program for initiatives that foster public trust.

Federal program details and application forms for the AgriMarketing, AgriCompetitiveness, AgriScience, AgriInnovate, AgriDiversity and AgriAssurance programs are now available on Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s website. Funding will begin April 1, 2018.

These programs announced by MacAulay on Tuesday are separate from the federal-provincial business risk management (BRM) programs, including AgriStability and AgriInvest, which also fall under the new CAP framework. Changes to the BRM suite were were announced last July.

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