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Going Forward with Growing Forward

July 14, 2008

Regina - At the conclusion of the federal-provincial-territorial Ministers’ meeting last week in Quebec City, the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) was pleased to learn of the completion of the Quebec agreement: the five-year 1.3 billion dollar multilateral Growing Forward framework and of an additional $330 million to be allocated to priorities like the environment, competitiveness and innovation, and food safety over the next five years.

“This new funding is a good first step for Growing Forward,” says APAS President Glenn Blakley.  “We were especially pleased to see the recognition of flexibility between the pillars. This five-year agreement ensures that the producers of Saskatchewan will have a real opportunity to benefit from Provincial and Federal incentives.” 

Canada’s agriculture ministers are set to have a busy summer developing federal-provincial agreements on how to specifically allocate money under the Growing Forward framework.  APAS will continue to work with our provincial government to ensure that the priorities of Saskatchewan’s farmers are addressed.

“APAS is especially pleased that the Ministers agreed to undertake a strategic review of Business Risk Management programs over the upcoming year to ensure that these programs meet evolving needs.” says Blakley.  “APAS looks forward to working with provincial and federal representatives to ensure that our farmers and ranchers have the right tools at the right time.”

While the funding increase is certainly positive, APAS will continue to work through the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) to pursue an AgriFlex component within Growing Forward, which would allocate additional funds to deal with regional or provincial priorities.  CFA’s proposal calls for $1 billion per year for five years, and APAS strongly believes that this would allow Saskatchewan to strengthen our commitment to priorities like improved crop insurance, development of livestock production insurance, and the environment.

Earlier in the week, Blakley, along with other western farm leaders, was in Quebec City to attend a roundtable discussion with the federal, provincial & territorial ministers that was hosted by the CFA.

APAS is the province’s general farm organization, formed to provide farmers and ranchers with a democratically elected, grassroots, non-partisan producer organization based on rural municipal boundaries.  As the voice of agriculture in Saskatchewan, APAS represents the views of all agricultural stakeholders in order to form comprehensive policies that benefit all sectors of agriculture.

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For more information, please contact:

DOn Connick, APAS President

(306) 872-8208 (cell); 

or

 Nial Kuyek, APAS General Manager;

(306) 789-7774 (ext 229); nkuyek@apas.ca