Blois makes moves to reduce agri-food red tape
New federal Agriculture Minister Kody Blois says he’s taking steps to cut red tape from the Canadian agri-food sector in a bid to increase competitiveness and reduce costs for producers.
“We know that is a crucial time right now for Canadian farmers and we have to be doing everything in our control to reduce costs,” Blois said in a video posted on X.
“The Prime Minister has been clear: we have to focus on what we can do at home to be able to control our economic future,” he added.
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In a statement on Thursday evening, Blois announced that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency would take measures to remove unnecessary regulatory burdens.
These included speeding product approvals to provide alternatives to U.S.-sourced animal feed. The move was touted to alleviate tariff pressures on feed producers by making more feed ingredients available in Canada or from other countries.
The CFIA will also aim to harmonize Canada’s bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) enhanced feed ban with U.S. requirements. This, the federal government said, puts the Canadian beef sector at a competitive disadvantage compared to the U.S. industry.
Blois said the CFIA will also address “stakeholder irritants” through regulatory changes. Canada will explore increasing the maximum slaughter age for feeder cattle to 40 weeks from 36.
Harmonizing Canadian testing requirements for salmonella at hatcheries with U.S. regulations is also in the works.
Finally, Blois said “outdated prescriptive requirements” would be removed regarding labeling requirements for fresh fruit and vegetables. The CFIA will also continue to work on modernizing fruit and vegetable grades.
Committing to action?
Tyler McCann, managing director of the Canadian Agricultural Policy Institute (CAPI), said in a post on X that the statement appears to signal a commitment to action, which “is a pretty big change in itself.”
“It makes competitiveness a priority,” he wrote. “Lip service was paid before, but decisions made competitiveness worse and irritants were left in place.”
For example, the feed ban changes should have been made a while ago, McCann said.
“The biggest impact may be the signal sent to the bureaucracy that the old way of doing things is over. This should have ripple effects,” he added.
McCann said the change in leadership “shows promise,” but said he expects many in Canadian agriculture will have a hard time “forgetting some of the recent challenges.”
Source: Farmtario.com