Status of Policy Issue: AgriStability
AgriStability is one of the business risk management (BRM) programs under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership designed to protect producers against large declines in farming income for reasons such as production loss, increased costs, and market conditions. SaskCanola identified that changes to AgriStability were necessary to better support growers.
Actions taken:
SaskCanola worked directly with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture and then through CCGA with the federal government to share canola growers’ concerns regarding the AgriStability program. At the March 25, 2021 Federal-Provincial-Territorial (FPT) Ministers of Agriculture meeting, an agreement was reached to remove the reference margin limit (RML). Key highlights:
Producers are now guaranteed that the RML used in their program calculations will never be less than 70% of their conventional reference margin.
Changes to the RML will help producers who operate within a low-cost expense structure, which would have resulted in a low reference margin. It will make no difference for producers whose reference margins were not limited.
At the July 22, 2022 Federal-Provincial-Territorial (FPT) Ministers of Agriculture meeting, a new partnership agreement was reached to inject new funds to support the sector. Key highlights:
Ministers agreed to improve Business Risk Management (BRM) programs, including raising the AgriStability compensation rate from 70% to 80%.
Over the course of the agreement, new measures will be added to the suite of BRM programs, which will make them more timely, equitable and easy to understand, as well as to better protect producers against climate risk. Ministers will continue to collaborate with producers to ensure they have a suite of programs they can rely on when they face extraordinary situations.
Looking forward:
SaskCanola will continue to work with Minister Marit’s office and the federal government through CCGA to develop new business risk management programming that will serve farmers effectively in the next agriculture policy framework.
The next Annual FPT Ministers’ meeting will be held in Fredericton, New Brunswick in July 2023.