Cutting red tape a top priority for Canadian agriculture

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

by SUSAN MANN

Governments should focus on cutting red tape, slashing taxes and improving market access for Canadian farm products to boost the agricultural industry’s overall competitiveness, according to a Canadian business organization.

Those three items were identified as top priorities by 1,049 respondents to a recent Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) survey of its members on the future of agriculture.

Virginia Labbie, CFIB senior policy analyst for agri-business, says the federation’s members really see red tape reduction as a low-cost way for governments to drive productivity in the farming sector.

Red tape costs the Canadian economy $30 billion annually for business owners to comply with government regulations at all levels, she says, noting that includes the forms, required paperwork and frustrating customer service at various agencies.

But CFIB is encouraged the federal government announced a red tape reduction commission. “We would hope that agriculture ministers this week also make a firm commitment to reduce the regulatory burden on farmers,” she says.

The federal, provincial and territorial agriculture ministers are meeting this week for their conference being held July 7 and 8 in St. Andrews by-the-Sea, New Brunswick.

The other priorities CFIB survey respondents identified for government action were: lobby for a reduction in international subsidies; increase the focus on industry research, development and innovation; and design more responsive business risk management programs.

“The message really is: give farmers more time and more money to reinvest back in their business and be more productive,” she explains.

The CFIB hopes its top three priorities are the focus of discussions this week at the agriculture ministers’ meeting and at upcoming future discussions as governments determine the details of the next generation Growing Forward programs.

CFIB continues to hear from farmers that AgriStability is still extremely complicated, not responsive and too slow to address their needs. So far, 1,100 farmers have signed a CFIB action alert, which is a petition, calling for change to this program.

The federation knows agriculture ministers have been reviewing business risk management programs since 2008 but many members are still dissatisfied with the program.  “We just think this is useful feedback for them as they design the next suite of business risk management programs,” Labbie says.

The federation’s farmer member priorities for government were in an open letter to federal, provincial and territorial agriculture ministers released this week. BF