Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) is encouraged by today’s announcement by the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, and Terry Duguid, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, regarding consultations for the development of Canada’s Sustainable Agriculture Strategy. 

“KAP has been advocating for the inclusion of farmers when it comes to tackling the challenges affecting our sector, and today’s announcement demonstrates the federal government is listening to ensure Canadian farmers have a seat at the table,” said KAP President, Bill Campbell. 

“One of KAP’s main goals is to reduce the regulatory burden for farmers and find solutions that include their perspectives, focused on sustainable growth and practical strategies that can be applied on-farm,” continued Campbell. “It is also important to note that the conversation around sustainability includes not only environmental concerns, but also social and economic, something that KAP has been seeking recognition of from government.” 

As part of this strategy, the federal government has opened up a public consultation until March 2023 to seek input as the strategy is developed. The inclusion of public consultation will allow for broad perspectives to be included when considering details of the strategy, but consideration of the perspectives from within agriculture should remain a priority by government. 

“Agriculture has the solutions to many of the challenges we face, and KAP is ready to contribute to the conversation when decisions are being made through the development of this strategy,” said Campbell. “We will be providing a full submission to the public consultation on behalf of Manitoba farmers to ensure their priorities, including transparency throughout the process, consensus on data collection and management for measuring sustainability outcomes, and the inclusion of farmers, are represented.”

Today’s announcement also includes the creation of an Advisory Committee, comprised of a wide variety of stakeholders from agriculture. This will be co-chaired by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA), of which KAP is a member. 

“KAP has long advocated to all levels of government to ensure farmers have a seat at the table in the development of policies, goals, and strategies, and will be working closely with CFA throughout the process of the development of this strategy to work toward positive solutions,” concluded Campbell.

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For more information:

Colin Hornby

Manager of Communications & Stakeholder Relations
Email: colin.hornby@kap.ca
Direct: (204) 898-2641