The federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million. However, provinces have to agree in order for the changes to occur.

Federal minister Heath MacDonald said after a July 17 virtual meeting ministers were “receptive” to this plan and agreed to take the steps required to make the changes. Under the federal-provincial agreement, changes to AgriStability can only be made if two-thirds of provinces agree.

The changes are meant to help with trade challenges Canadian farmers are currently facing, particularly from China and the United States.

Beginning in the 2026 program year, provinces will be able to use a new inventory valuation method for inventory used on farm, such as feed. Ministers agreed to obtain approvals to include feed costs associated with rented pasture as an allowable expense ahead of the 2026 program year.

The ministers will meet in person in Winnipeg Sept. 7-9, at which time they will continue reviewing allowable expenses under AgriStability.

Trade was also on the agenda at the virtual meeting, both interprovincial and international.

Meanwhile, MacDonald said his next trip is to Toronto to tout the benefits of agriculture to the investment community. He said he is trying to push the envelope for agricultural success, which has strong positive implications for the Canadian economy.

He also said he can’t overemphasize the collaboration and support he has received from his provincial and territorial counterparts since becoming minister in May.

More to come.

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Grain Growers of Canada chair Andre Harpe said he was glad the ministers were able to reach a decision, after hearing they were having problems finalizing a deal.

“I was quite surprised that they did reach a deal. A program is better than no program, and if they hadn’t signed a deal, it would be in flux, and that’s not good for anybody.”

Harpe said a five-year framework gives farmers more stability.

“One of the other things I like is that $250 million goes to environmental stewardship. It’s going to be interesting to see what that comes out like.”

Harpe also welcomed the change to AgriStability. The new partnership commits the feds and provinces to boost the reference margin compensation rate for the program to 80 per cent from the current 70, which is expected to provide another $72 million per year for enrolled farmers. Harpe said participation in AgriStability has only been about 30 per cent so far.

“Back in 2013, accessibility to it became more limited by some of the restrictions put in place. It became really hard to access.”

Roger Chevraux, a grain farmer from Killam and chair of the Alberta Canola Producers Commission, said the federal government increased funding for AgriStability, which was one of the delays on an agreement.

“The reference margin was fixed last year in the other agreements, and this (increased funding) was a sticking point that wasn’t covered back then. So, this is a positive for us for sure,” said Chevraux.

“The changes to AgriStability are very positive,” said Brad Dubeau, general manager of Alberta Beef Producers (ABP).

“There’s still some work to be done, but the increase to the overall envelope is very positive. The compensation rate of 70 to 80 per cent is also very positive. We’re looking forward to more details around what some of the requirements will look like on the environmental side of things.”

Dubeau said ABP will evaluate the program to ensure it works well for the cow-calf and feedlot sectors. The program must respond quickly and appropriately to producers who have enrolled, he said.

“There are continued upgrades that we’d like to see for the program so it works well for all sectors,” he said.

“We would encourage producers to talk to their financial advisor or accountant to determine if the program is something that they should be a part of. We’re taking the steps, and the government of Alberta and the federal government are taking the steps to make it work better for producers in general.”

Sheila Hillmer, who owns a mixed farm near Del Bonita, said there haven’t been many insurance options for cow-calf producers.

“Building a more robust business risk management system will hopefully help longer term and help with the sustainability and viability of our current and future producers.”

Hillmer said that because her operation has grain and a cow-calf operation, one entity can offset the other and prevent her from qualifying for AgriStability.

“There’s so much overhead in each, but they tend to look at profitability in very siloed ways. Those of us who are diversified tend to get excluded and I think we’ve got to find ways to look at each entity in the business,” she said.

“I think we have to find a much more robust system to look at all ag sectors and whether you are diversified or not.”

Still, Hillmer sees the new funding framework and changes to AgriStability as positive.

“I’m happy the government is recognizing the need to work with agriculture and continues to invest resources in agriculture, specifically the cattle industry, to make it a much more attractive and sustainable industry for youth in the future.”

*Update: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Andre Harpe as chair of Cereals Canada. We regret the error.

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Following meetings this week in Saskatoon, federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and her provincial and territorial counterparts on Friday mapped out the bones of their next five-year ag funding framework, to be called the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership.

“As the provincial-territorial co-chair, we are pleased with the increased funding all parties have committed to today,” the ministerial co-chair, Saskatchewan Ag Minister Dave Marit, said in a release. “I believe we have found the proper balance between economic and environmental objectives to ensure our industry remains globally competitive.”

Where the current five-year Canadian Agricultural Partnership — agreed upon in 2017 for the 2018-2023 period under Bibeau’s predecessor Lawrence MacAulay — committed the feds and provinces to $2 billion in funding for cost-shared programs, the new partnership deal will raise that figure to $2.5 billion, up 25 per cent.

RALP

Part of the thicker cost-shared envelope — $250 million — will go to fund a new Resilient Agricultural Landscape Program (RALP), which is meant to support ecological goods and services provided by the agriculture sector.

The ministers “agreed in principle” on that program, with details to come later, though they said it will be administered by the provinces and territories, based on “nationally consistent principles (and) tailored to regional needs and conditions.”

Existing programs that “respect the guidelines” for RALP, such as Prince Edward Island’s Alternate Land Use Services (ALUS) program, Quebec’s Programme de Rétribution des pratiques agroenvironnementales, and Manitoba’s Growing Outcomes in Watersheds (GROW), will be “able to benefit from the new federal funding,” the federal government said in its release Friday.

AgriStability

The new partnership also commits the feds and provinces to boost the compensation rate for the AgriStability ag income stabilization program to 80 per cent, up from the current 70, which is expected to provide another $72 million per year for enrolled farmers.

Under AgriStability, a payment is triggered when a participating farmer’s production margin for a given program year falls more than 30 per cent below their reference margin. Under the current framework, AgriStability covers 70 per cent of the farmer’s decline beyond that 30 per cent mark.

That said, the ministers added Friday they’ve agreed to “continue to work, and consult with industry, on a new AgriStability model that will be faster, simpler and more predictable.”

The governments taking part in the ag policy framework said they’ve “identified key changes” to improve AgriStability and plan to “further analyze and implement this new model while ensuring a smooth transition.”

As for other business risk management (BRM) programs operating under the partnership, the ministers committed to a one-year review on “how to integrate climate risk and readiness” in those programs.

Under that review, the provinces would identify “potential incentives” and then launch a pilot for producers who adopt environmental practices that also reduce their production risks.

The ministers also agreed that in order to receive a government contribution to their AgriInvest accounts, farmers who have allowable net sales (ANS) of at least $1 million will need to have an agri-environmental risk assessment (for example, an Environmental Farm Plan) in place by 2025.

The ministers noted the BRM programs will still “continue to focus on production risk.”

‘Results strategy’

The ministers also said they agreed on “the need for a more robust results strategy” for the 2023-28 partnership, which will involve “improved data sharing, results reporting, and a commitment to contribute to common, measurable outcomes” over that time.

Those outcomes include reduction in the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions by between three million and five million tonnes; $250 billion in ag sector revenues and $95 billion in sector export revenues by 2028; and a measurable increase in funded recipients who are Indigenous Peoples, women and youth over that time.

The ministers noted Quebec is “already implementing policies and strategies to provide targets, indicators and accountability processes that meet the priorities and objectives set out in this agreement” and will not be subject to the framework target’s commitments but rather will “contribute to collective results” through its own targets and accountability mechanisms.

Fertilizer emissions

Curbing the ag sector’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fertilizer was a sore spot among participating ministers. In their joint release, they said they “discussed the importance of ensuring that efforts to reduce emissions from fertilizer or other agricultural sources do not impede Canada’s ability to contribute to domestic and global food security, now or into the future.”

The discussions, they said, also “mentioned” ongoing consultations undertaken by the feds to develop “voluntary approaches” to achieve Canada’s target of reducing absolute GHG emissions associated with fertilizers by 30 per cent below 2020 levels by 2030.

That 30 per cent target was first laid out in the federal climate plan in late 2020. The ministers said Friday it was “reiterated” at their meeting that the 30 per cent target “applies to emissions and not fertilizer use.”

However, Marit, in a separate release, said his government is “really concerned with this arbitrary goal,” adding the Trudeau government “has apparently moved on from their attack on the oil and gas industry and set their sights on Saskatchewan farmers.”

Marit and his Alberta counterpart Nate Horner, in a joint statement Friday, said the provinces had “pushed the federal government to discuss this important topic, but were disappointed to learn that the target is already set.”

The commitment to future consultations, Marit and Horner said, is “only to determine how to meet the target that Prime Minister Trudeau and Minister Bibeau have already unilaterally imposed on this industry, not to consult on what is achievable or attainable.”

“The federal government needs to be true partners, rather than simply imposing targets that make it harder,” Ontario’s Agriculture Minister Lisa Thompson said in a separate statement, adding the provinces were “disappointed by the lack of flexibility and consultation regarding the federal target.”

Reaction

The Canadian Cattle Association, in a separate release late Friday, said with the new framework’s increased funding envelope, the beef cattle sector “is now better equipped to deliver on some of the ambitious environmental and productivity goals as set by the national beef strategy partners.”

“Today’s announcement is a recognition that the (ag ministers) heard our concerns,” CCA president Reg Schellenberg said in the release.

The CCA hailed the RALP program announcement as “a welcome investment for beef producers who perform these services as a byproduct of raising beef” and noted the increase to the AgriStability compensation rate has “long been advocated for by the beef sector.”

Bill Campbell, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, said the group “remain(s) concerned with the increase in GHG reduction targets… This will need clear and transparent data sources and measures, but we have yet to see which data and life cycle analysis will be used to determine these targets.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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O’Connor said he wasn’t sure what to expect after momentum building during the show’s first five years was quashed when the COVID-19 pandemic response quashed in-person events.

However, combined attendance for the first two days of the 2022 event topped 22,000 — a figure on track for matching or exceeding previous years.

“It’s rejuvenating, actually, to be able to come back to an in-person event, having these big crowds and all of our staff together, all of the exhibitors and farmers that come to the show. Having everybody back, it feels really good after a two-year hiatus,” he said in an interview.

Ag in Motion, billed as Western Canada’s largest outdoor farm show, is an annual event mounted every summer at a permanent site near Langham, Sask., about 40 km northwest of Saskatoon. The event is owned and operated by Glacier FarmMedia, owner of this website.

This year’s three-day AiM show wraps up Thursday night.

O’Connor said the decision to go live again was complicated during the winter months as new waves of the COVID-19 virus emerged.

“There was a lot of hesitation at the time of planning that with the show be smaller. We didn’t know the effects of the pandemic,” he said. “But the team buckled down. We worked with our exhibiting companies and sponsors and we got it back to where it was.”

This year’s show featured a revamped and expanded livestock section which appears to have been well received, he added.

In addition to 543 exhibitors and thousands of farmers, AiM this year played host to the federal, provincial and territorial agriculture ministers, who took a break from their annual meeting in Saskatoon this week to spend half a day meeting with exhibitors as they toured the show site.

On the subject of ministerial talks toward a new agricultural policy funding framework, “we have seen a lot of progress, and I’m hopeful that we will be able to reach an agreement this week,” federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau told reporters Tuesday before heading to Saskatoon.

Sustainable agriculture, she said, needs to be “in the heart of our discussion and in the heart of the next agreement” — and ministers will discuss how to improve ag sustainability at the farm level while also ensuring agrifood businesses and farmers are “competitive in the world market.”

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The impact on markets escalated this week as a growing list of food producing countries restricted exports, keeping vital supplies within their borders.

Wheat prices hit 14-year highs and edible oil prices surged following a sudden stop to exports from Ukraine and a sharp reduction from Russia.

“We call on all countries to keep their food and agricultural markets open and to guard against any unjustified restrictive measures on their exports,” a statement from the G7 farm ministers issued by Germany’s agriculture ministry said.

A meeting of G7 agriculture ministers hosted by Germany discussed the consequences of the war in Ukraine for global food security.

“Any further increase in food price levels and volatility in international markets could threaten food security and nutrition at a global scale, especially among the most vulnerable living in environments of low food security,” the statement said.

German agriculture minister Cem Oezdemir said after the meeting he was concerned the poorest countries worldwide will suffer especially.

“Many countries are facing difficulties to supply themselves with agricultural commodities, this is threatening the food supply in parts of the world,” Oezdemir said, adding that meant it was “ever more important” to prevent export restrictions.

Ministers said they will intensify monitoring of food futures markets.

“We will not tolerate artificially inflated prices that could diminish the availability of food and agricultural products,” the statement said. “We will also fight against any speculative behaviour that endangers food security or access to food for vulnerable countries or populations.”

Germany this year holds the presidency of the G7, of which members also include Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the U.K., the U.S. and the European Union.

— Reporting for Reuters by Michael Hogan in Hamburg.

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Canada’s agriculture ministers are now calling on industry to lead the process.

They had formed the working group to study the issue in November, following complaints from suppliers that retailers were increasingly charging arbitrary, and costly, fees.

A summary report released Thursday said those fees are “causing tensions” in supply chain relationships, particularly between processors and retailers, as “fees have increased in their form and scale, and they have changed in the manner in which they are imposed.”

To find a regulated or legislated approach, the working group says provincial action would likely be required, but stakeholders operating on a national level contend doing so could lead to “disjointed provincial action, which could lead to inconsistent applications and loopholes if some provinces chose not to take action or do so differently.”

One potential approach being pitched is the development of a voluntary code of conduct with detailed rules to guide commercial relationships, while also providing a dispute resolution process.

Some stakeholders have proposed the creation of this, but there are concerns it might not be widely adopted and could lead to competitive distortions — for example, if only some businesses would be subject to paying compliance costs.

Making the code of conduct mandatory, which also has support in some sectors, could be implemented through legislation if needed. Critics warn doing so made lead to a lack of uniformity across the country as province’s each pass separate, potentially differing, laws.

Following Thursday’s meeting of Canada’s agriculture ministers, a readout from the proceedings called on “industry to lead a collaborative process to develop broad consensus around a concrete proposal to improve transparency, predictability, and respect for the principles of fair dealing.”

The ministers said the industry-led process will work alongside the working group.

Another update to agriculture ministers will likely be on the agenda at their next meeting, scheduled for December.

The dairy industry continues to be one of the loudest voices on the topic. In a release, the Dairy Processors Association of Canada (DPAC) welcomed the report’s findings.

“As a supply-managed industry, the arbitrary fees and penalties levied by large retailers create additional pressures for Canada’s dairy processors,” said Mathieu Frigon, DPAC’s CEO.

“We have heard from dairy processors across the country that this is a pressing issue and it is good to see that FPT ministers have come to the same conclusion. Now the important work toward an acceptable solution begins.”

The working group’s chair, Quebec Agriculture Minister Andre Lamontagne, said in a separate release Thursday it’s “essential to ensure more healthy relations between retailers and small processors and producers, who are particularly sensitive to uncertainty created by the fees imposed on them.”

However, he said he’s “optimistic” about sector players’ commitment to finding a mutually satisfactory solution.

— D.C. Fraser reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

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“It has been just over 110 days since we made the offer to the provinces to improve AgriStability,” Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and Winnipeg MP Jim Carr, the federal cabinet’s special representative for the Prairie region, said in a joint statement Wednesday.

“We are asking for a clear indication from the three Prairie provinces whether they will sign on or not.”

To the Prairie provinces’ agriculture ministers, the two MPs asked, “have you taken the proposal to your premiers and to your cabinets? Are they supportive of these changes?”

In the wake of a virtual ag ministers’ meeting in late November, Bibeau went public with a unilateral pitch to eliminate AgriStability’s reference margin limit and boost the program’s compensation rate to 80 per cent, up from the current 70.

Those changes, the MPs said, “could lead to an increased payout from AgriStability of 50 per cent, or $170 million nationally, into the pockets of farmers who need it the most.”

Approval from the provinces, which foot 40 per cent of the bill for federal/provincial business risk management programs, would be required for such changes to AgriStability — specifically, at least two-thirds of the provinces, representing two-thirds of program participants.

It’s possible such changes could be made without any of the Prairie provinces on board, although the cost would be relatively more significant for those provinces. But industry observers say the federal government wouldn’t move ahead without at least one Prairie province’s approval.

That observation gets added cred from Bibeau and Carr’s statement Wednesday, in which they said they’re “awaiting a clear response from all three Prairie provinces to build a strong consensus to enact the proposed changes.”

At the request of the Prairie ministers, the MPs said, they would convene a further federal-provincial-territorial meeting, but “to ensure this is a productive meeting and that we can provide much-needed results for farmers, we would prefer to convene only when ministers have a decision in hand.”

Farmers’ AgriStability enrolment deadline for the coming year is April 30, Bibeau and Carr said, and “we need to implement these changes in advance of that deadline in order to encourage more farmers to sign up, and increase farmer participation in the program.”

Several provinces have said they want to see longer-term changes to business risk management programs — and Bibeau and Carr said Wednesday such changes would be reviewed in consultations on the next five-year agricultural policy funding framework, due to take effect in 2023.

“However, consultations on longer-term fixes to the business risk management suite of programs should not come at the expense of the short-term fixes to AgriStability that farmers are asking for today,” the MPs said.

‘Need clarity now’

Meanwhile, several major federal and provincial farm and commodity organizations lined up Wednesday to back the federal MPs’ stance and call on the Prairie provinces for an immediate yea or nay.

“We understand that the priority of all governments is on COVID-19 vaccination and economic recovery, but we need a consensus on AgriStability as soon as possible to mitigate the economic risks that producers are facing on a daily basis,” Canadian Pork Council chair Rick Bergmann said Wednesday.

“It’s not the time for backyard politics, hog producers across Canada are impacted by inadequate programs… When something is broken in our businesses, homes or farms, we fix it. It’s time we fix AgriStability.”

“We need to have tools that help us better manage the risks of weather, trade and production. The proposed program enhancements will do that and better position the beef industry to contribute to Canada’s economic recovery,” Canadian Cattlemen’s Association president Bob Lowe said in a separate joint release.

“The AgriStability deadline is looming, and Canadian farmers and ranchers are already making their risk management decisions for the year,” Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Mary Robinson said in the same joint release. “There is no time left to wait, we need clarity now.”

Another eleven Alberta crop and livestock producer groups, in a separate joint statement Wednesday, said they agree the changes will provide “immediate improvements to the program for producers’ benefit” but also recognize the proposal “is not a long-term solution.”

However, they added, “accepting the current proposal would offer Alberta’s producers meaningful changes that will serve as a bridge to the next policy framework in 2023.”

For their part, the ag ministers for Alberta and Saskatchewan were quoted Wednesday by the Canadian Press (CP) as saying they want to have that ad hoc follow-up meeting Bibeau and Carr propose, so as to vote on and discuss the proposed short-term changes.

“It is nice to see after all this time that the federal minister is finally willing to bring her provincial and territorial colleagues back to the table to complete this important discussion on enhancements to AgriStability,” CP’s Bill Graveland quoted Saskatchewan’s David Marit as saying. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and her Ontario counterpart, Ernie Hardeman, “urge all provincial and territorial ministers to support the proposed changes to the AgriStability program,” they said in a joint statement Tuesday.

At a Nov. 27 online meeting with her provincial and territorial counterparts, Bibeau proposed to remove AgriStability’s reference margin limit and to boost the compensation rate for when a payout is triggered to 80 per cent from 70.

“Accepting the proposed changes soon is key to ensuring the enhanced supports can be applied retroactively to 2020, something we know farmers across the country have been asking for,” Bibeau and Hardeman said Tuesday.

“Since the federal government has confirmed its 60 per cent contribution, it rests with the undeclared provinces and territories to come forward with their 40 per cent share. We thank those provinces who have already confirmed their participation and hope to hear from those others soon.”

Manitoba’s Agriculture Minister Blaine Pedersen, who has suggested replacing AgriStability, is still studying Bibeau’s proposal, his office said via email Tuesday.

“Supporting the growth and resiliency of Manitoba’s agricultural sector is a priority” for the province’s ag department and government, the email said.

Bibeau’s plan follows years of complaints from Canadian farm groups that changes to AgriStability in 2013 dramatically cut support after the payout trigger went from an 85 per cent decline in eligible margins to 75 per cent.

Famers want the trigger restored and the reference margin limit removed, but see Bibeau’s plan as a good first step. Most farm groups, including Manitoba’s Keystone Agricultural Producers, endorse Bibeau’s proposal.

“Taken together this (proposal) would result in a 50 per cent increase, around $170 million per year in direct support to farmers who need it the most,” the joint statement said. “In order for these changes to be put in place, we need the support of a large majority of provinces and territories soon.”

While Pedersen is concerned the changes will make AgriStability more expensive for the Manitoba government, he has also said AgriStability has a lot of problems, including its complexity, unpredictability and the delay between when farmers suffer losses and receive payments.

“I think if you get rid of the reference margin limit and bring the coverage up to 80 per cent, yeah, it would certainly help,” KAP president Bill Campbell said in an interview Dec. 1.

“Those two things would make it so it has the potential to make it a feasible program for the ag industry.

“I think if some of the issues were addressed and fixed it wouldn’t necessarily be a broken program.”

After years as the target of farm lobbyists’ wrath, however, Ottawa is now holding the provinces’ feet to the fire on Bibeau’s proposal.

“For many years we have been consulting on improving the suite of business risk management programs and we agree that fixing AgriStability is the priority,” Tuesday’s joint statement said. “It needs to be simpler, fairer, more predictable and more generous.

“While the proposed changes to AgriStability may not be the perfect solution for all farmers or governments, they reflect a good start to achieving a national consensus and allow Canada’s agriculture ministers to continue discussing enhancements to the program while still improving supports for farmers today.”

The ministers “are all committed on more long-term changes to the suite of business risk management (BRM) programs as we begin consultations for the start of the next five-year policy framework, which begins in 2023,” Bibeau and Hardeman said.

“Improving the BRM programs is a top priority for our governments. Farmers have shown their resiliency during COVID-19; however, many could still use the added help that these short-term changes could provide. We have an opportunity to act now, to offer them increased support. It’s time to get it done.”

— Allan Dawson reports for the Manitoba Co-operator from Miami, Man.

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After the meetings ended Friday, federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau explained Ottawa was willing to maintain the current cost sharing of the programs at a 60-40 split between her government and the provinces.

Bibeau’s proposal also includes an increase in the compensation rate offered under the AgriStability program, from 70 to 80 per cent, and a removal of the reference margin limit.

Removing reference margins will increase funding to farmers by more than 30 per cent, she said, and an increase in the compensation rate would bring funding to farmers up by more than 50 per cent.

“While I believe the compensation rate is the best action to take, I’m prepared to consider other options,” Bibeau said. “But before we have this discussion on additional improvements, we have to agree on removing the reference margin limit.”

Bibeau brushed off a question on why she was taking such a firm position on removing the reference margin limit, and reiterated her proposal.

Ontario’s Agriculture Minister Ernie Hardeman said Friday’s meeting was the first time Bibeau had offered a counterproposal to the one made earlier this year by the provinces, which would have seen funding levels move from a 60-40 split to one where the feds would pay for 90 per cent of BRM costs.

“To put it in perspective, this was the first time we were able to send all the provinces back home with a concrete proposal,” he said.

“We’ve talked about hypotheticals, we’ve talked about changes some may like and some may not, but this is the first opportunity we’ve had where the federal government has laid the cards on the table and said, ‘This is my hand, do you want to play?’

“We need to provide the opportunity for everybody to consider that, to look over that, to find what the impact would be to their producers and to their treasury.”

Other provinces had previously expressed frustration over Ottawa’s lack of a counter-offer on AgriStability prior to the final meeting.

Bibeau, in turn, said she will “give time” to her colleagues to analyze the proposal and get back to her “as soon as possible.”

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture, in a separate release Friday, hailed Bibeau as “the first (agriculture) minister to deliver real action on this issue since 2013 by putting forth this proposal.”

Changes to the programs, particularly AgriStability, have long been sought. At the heart of the issue is the amount of money being made available to farmers applying to AgriStability, and the threshold that triggers the payments to them.

The program was designed as an income stabilization plan for farmers who experience large declines in income. Farm lobby groups have suggested the levels of losses required to trigger payments from the program are too high, and the compensation received is too low.

Making it easier for farmers to access those payments, while also increasing the money received, would be costly. Government estimates from 2019 suggest costs would increase by $400 million, but the federal government did not provide a cost analysis of the proposal made Friday.

Some provinces — particularly Manitoba and Saskatchewan — contend paying their share of the program is difficult given their financial situations.

Manitoba Agriculture Minister Blaine Pedersen this summer cast doubt on the prospect of reforms.

“We are not going there anytime soon just because of the cost implications for the Prairie provinces,” he told the Manitoba Co-operator’s Allan Dawson in June.

Moving AgriStability’s payout trigger to 85 per cent from the current 70, and eliminating the reference margin limit, would cost the Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta governments millions of dollars more, he said.

Asked Friday if she sensed any progress was being made to find a positive outcome on the issue, Bibeau said she was “hopeful that we can reach consensus.

“I understand that some have a fiscal challenge, let’s say, but we are talking about business risk management programs so it’s kind of an insurance for farmers and it would pay out only if they have a bad year, so I’m hoping we can reach this consensus and proceed with the changes as soon as possible.”

Grain Growers of Canada, in a separate release Friday, said it “recognizes the unique fiscal challenges faced by the provinces as they consider the next steps” for the program, but added that “agriculture is more than worth the investment in order to drive an economic recovery — and support the food security of Canadians.”

Canadian Pork Council chair Rick Bergmann, citing Statistics Canada data to show revenue has fallen more for hog producers than for “most other sectors,” said the provinces “will fail most farmers if they choose not to fund fixing AgriStability when they are spending $1 billion on crop insurance.”

No timeline or deadline was provided in Friday’s communique on when the provinces are expected to respond to Ottawa’s offer.

Prospects of a short-term solution now seem unlikely. If the provinces accept Bibeau’s proposal, the changes could be implemented retroactively to cover the 2020 program year.

The ministers’ statement Friday “demonstrates that some progress has been achieved,” the CFA said in its release, but added that “all levels of government need to come together and finalize an agreement over the coming weeks.”

“While these proposals are not exactly what we were seeking, they are a very positive step forward for the business environment of Canadian agriculture,” CFA president Mary Robinson said in the same release.

“AgriStability has not provided a sufficient financial backstop for farmers since the cuts were made in 2013 and these shortcomings have been magnified by the impacts of COVID-19 on the industry,” she said.

Canada’s BRM programs, she said, “no longer reflect the risk profile of Canadian agriculture and must be improved.”

— D.C. Fraser reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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Federal Agriculture Minister Marie Claude Bibeau said she is confident counterparts from Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia will be willing to contribute their share to make significant improvements to AgriStability, the program most criticized by producers.

“It’s going to be more challenging with the Prairie provinces and some other provinces, who are saying that they have more financial or fiscal constraints,” she said.

BRM programs are funded by federal and provincial governments, at a cost-share ratio of 60-40. The cost has averaged roughly $1.5 billion in the past five years, but is expected to be higher this year because of the pandemic.

Consecutive years of strong commodity prices justified governments moving money away from risk management funding toward other programs, such as those focusing on innovation. By 2013, policy adjustments had made AgriStability more difficult for farmers to qualify for what became relatively lower payouts.

Now producers are calling for AgriStability to pay out at pre-2013 levels, and for the removal of its reference margin limits so it’s easier for producers to qualify.

Bibeau says her objective is to find consensus among the provinces to “make AgriStability more generous, easier to understand and to proceed with, and also fairer when we look at the different sectors in agriculture.”

She said she is confident in being able to accomplish it, but admits it won’t be easy.

“I still have to finalize my work at my own level, to get the authority to make changes that I’m looking for, and it will be obviously, for all of us, a matter of the financial capacity,” she said.

And while Ottawa knows there are a few levers it can play with — such as the compensation rate, payment triggers and the annual cap on payouts — Bibeau said “we all already agree on the fact that removing the reference margin limit should be the first step.”

Doing so is considered to be the most palatable option across government, largely because it is the least expensive option. Such a move may appease some producer groups, but others, such as pork or cattle producers, will want more substantive changes.

Cow-calf producers, for one example, have low eligible expenses, in part because they often produce their own feed and have low labour costs, so their margins must drop farther than other commodities before triggering payments from the program.

Bibeau maintains “all the options are still on the table” but said all the analysis done internally and externally shows “the best first step in the right direction” is to remove the reference margin cap.

In March, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada officials confirmed lowering the threshold to qualify and raising the total amount that can be paid out under AgriStability were also options being considered.

While the agenda for the ministers’ meeting was still being finalized as of this writing, it’s expected the provinces will also receive an update on the status of international trade and discuss other issues pressing the agricultural sector, such as the potential threat of African swine fever (ASF).

Originally scheduled for July, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the FPT meetings to be pushed to October. An election in Saskatchewan further delayed the meetings to the November dates.

During their last round of meetings, which took place in December 2019, the ministers agreed on making only minor changes to BRM programming.

— D.C. Fraser reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

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