Sign up for the farmnewsNOW newsletter

Trade and labour dominate discussions at Ag. ministers meeting

Jul 23, 2018 | 5:00 PM

Canada’s trade dispute with the United States is of big concern to Saskatchewan’s agriculture sector, according to the province’s Deputy Agriculture Minister.

Rick Burton attended the provincial and territorial agriculture ministers meetings last week in Vancouver, and said talk around trade and tariffs was one of the big items on the agenda. Burton said he has been hearing a lot of anxiety from Saskatchewan producers.

“Not just about the outcome of NAFTA modernization but also some of the more recent trade disputes whether that’s durum in Italy or pulses in India,” Burton said.

In addition to trade talks, ministers also discussed business risk management. Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay announced a renewed $55 milli program which he said will help protect farmers against business risks they face. Burton said the funding will help develop some private sector risk management tools, recommended by the business risk management external panel.

“One of those recommendations from the panel was can we build some producer funded top-up business risk management programs and the agri-risk management program is there to help with the research and development of those programs, ” he said.

A third issue discussed at the meetings in Vancouver was the country’s labour shortages facing the agriculture sector. A recent study by Statistics Canada revealed the national job vacancy rate in the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting sector had increased almost 1.3 per cent compared to the same period a year ago. 

“There are a lot of jobs that are going unfilled and that’s resulting in some whether it’s value added production or primary not happening across the country because the labour just isn’t there,” Burton said.

Over the weekend it was announced Japan ended its temporary suspension of Canadian wheat imports, which it imposed after some unauthorized genetically modified wheat was found in southern Alberta.  Burton said this was very positive news.

“The Japan market is worth about $600 millon in sales of wheat [to Canada] so it’s very positive that they lifted that temporary hold on imports,” he said, adding the announcement speaks to the work the Canadian Food Inspection Agency had done in terms of  investigating  the plants that were found.

Modified wheat is not approved for commercial use in Canada. The Canadian government said the unauthorized wheat was not present in the food or animal feed system, or anywhere other than where it was discovered.

 

nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell