Ottawa – The Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) was very pleased to hear the Fall fiscal update delivered by Minister of Finance Bill Morneau on November 21st.
Many of the recommendations that CFA made in the 2019 Pre-budget submission to help Canadian farmers were addressed, as well as recommendations by the agri-food economic strategy table.
“This fiscal update shows that the Federal Government is taking the right steps to increase the competitiveness and efficiency of Canada’s agricultural sector. This support is pivotal to achieve the target of increasing agricultural exports to $75 billion by 2025 which was set out in the 2017 Federal Budget,” said Ron Bonnett, CFA President.
Accelerated capital cost allowances will allow Canadian farmers more freedom to invest in their operations. The 100% deductibility on clean energy equipment will provide a direct incentive for further investment in climate change mitigation.
CFA is also pleased to see concrete steps made towards an export diversification strategy, with $1.1 billion invested over the next six years. This aligns closely with CFA’s continued calls for trade diversification, targeted investments in infrastructure, and overall growth in agri-food exports.
The update also outlined a series of regulatory modernizations, with competitiveness being added as a permanent part of regulatory mandates. The economic strategy table report outlined many regulatory bottlenecks and CFA is relieved to see the government promising to take immediate actions on items such as food labelling, barriers to interprovincial trade, the introduction of general aquaculture regulations and others.
“It is very heartening to see the government is listening to farmers and, more importantly, acting on what they hear. These initiatives are an excellent step towards harnessing the potential of Canadian agriculture,” said Bonnett.
CFA and its members look forward to discussions with policy makers to obtain more information on budget priorities and to offer farmers’ perspectives on various proposals.
