In the submission for the pre-budget consultation, CFA made the following high level recommendations:
- Permanently increase the interest-free portion of the Advance Payments Program to $350,000.
- Mandate Agricultural Impact Assessments for federal infrastructure and natural resource management initiatives.
- Develop a Critical Farm Input Strategy to support production stability.
- Establish pathways to permanent residency through a renewed and permanent Agri-Food Pilot.
- Make the Accelerated Investment Incentive permanent, allow 100% depreciation of machinery and equipment, and expand farm rollover provisions to support succession planning.
- Increase investment in plant and animal disease preparedness and response capacity.
- Accelerate access to new tools and technologies by leveraging trusted jurisdictions’ risk and science-based decisions to streamline approval timelines and use mechanisms such as conditional approvals and regulatory sandboxes to bring safe, innovative products to market faster.
- Establish a dedicated agriculture and agri-food infrastructure stream.