Lawrence MacAulay gets his (sometimes vague) marching orders

Saturday, January 9, 2016

The new minister's objectives, as set out in his mandate letter, are aspirational rather than precise. But among them are several items that could portend a shift in emphasis

by BARRY WILSON

When veteran Prince Edward Island MP and now newly minted Liberal agriculture minister Lawrence MacAulay walked out of his first early-November cabinet meeting, he may have had an idea of what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants him to do. Sort of.

Like all of Trudeau's ministers, he's supposed to be honest, transparent and friendly, to like civil servants, listen to Canadians and even talk to journalists (at least in the early days.)

Oh, and he is supposed to support farmers and the food industry by offering policies and commitments that help them be efficient, productive, innovative and part of the climate change solution.

Several days later, when the Prime Minister's Office published the "mandate letter" that all ministers received from the prime minister and his officials when they were appointed, the assignment was slightly clearer, but not much. Among his priorities are to be:

Putting federal funds into an Agri-Food Value-Added Investment Fund to lure more food processing investment into the sector (too vague to gauge);

Developing a food policy that "promotes healthy living and safe food" (yawn);
Investing in agricultural research, both long-term discovery science and shorter-term innovation research (interesting);

Promoting agricultural interests during future trade negotiations (but what if Canadian agricultural sector trade goals are at odds?);

Following through with the mandated requirement that a new federal-provincial national farm support policy be negotiated and in place when the current Growing Forward programs end in 2018. First, federal and provincial governments and producers will work to assess the adequacy of the present programs, a process already started by agriculture ministers under the former Conservative government.

Then there are the supportive roles – working with other ministers to review the effectiveness of the current grain transportation system, to improve the transportation system through infrastructure investments and to invest in "clean and sustainable technology and processing in farming."

In the early days of a new, activist government, these objectives of necessity are vague and aspirational rather than precise and clear.

What also is clear in Trudeau's rush to show his government is tackling some of the big priority issues in its first 100 days – refugees, climate change, the war on terror, relations with First Nations – is that agriculture is not a second tier or perhaps even a third tier priority, at least in the early days.

In the glare of the daring new government, MacAulay largely will be working in the shadows.

However, several brief mentions in the mandate letter to the minister bear watching. They could signal a shift in emphasis.

Trudeau gave "discovery science" – longer-range, what-if research that was de-emphasized during the Conservatives in favour of a short-term market, product and industry emphasis – equal billing with shorter-term innovation research.

And mention of development of the Growing Forward 2 successor framework appeared to come with a promise that producers would be part of the process. Many farm leaders complained in the last negotiation leading to the 2013 program that it was a closed government process with little input or impact from farmers.

And a final note: like other ministers, MacAulay was told he was expected to change the bureaucratic culture at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to "help ensure gender parity and that Indigenous Canadians and minority groups are better reflected in positions of leadership."
Just another small item to add to the to-do list. BF

Barry Wilson is a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery specializing in agriculture.