On August 1st, CFA made its submission to the ongoing Federal pre-budget consultations.
At a high-level, the submissions recommended to:
- Align regulatory frameworks with a growth-oriented agenda—by mandating key regulators to explicitly support Canada’s food security and competitiveness objectives.
- Provide a blanket remission for all currently impacted and future potential critical farm inputs subject to the Government of Canada’s Countermeasures in Response to U.S. Tariffs on Canadian Goods.
- Ensure that the new $5-billion Trade Diversification Corridor Fund prioritizes the needs of the agriculture and agri-food sector.
- Permanently increase the interest free portion of the Advance Payments Program to $350,000 and streamline administration requirements.
- Ensure the agricultural streams of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) are maintained to support farmers’ seasonal and temporary needs.
- Immediately launch consultations with industry representatives and implicated stakeholders to explore options to address the root causes of labour disruptions.
- Introduce a permanent Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance across all classes of farm equipment that would allow producers to depreciate 100% of their capital allocated to purchases of farm equipment.
- Commit to modernizing the Canada Grain Act (CGA) in consultation with producers.