Regulatory Stock Review Plan for Agriculture And Agri-Food Canada

The legislative review of the Canadian Agricultural Loans Act was tabled to Parliament in May 2021.

The next legislative review of the AMPA is expected to be completed in Spring 2023. The review will examine the three programs governed by the Act, including the Advance Payments Program (APP), the Price Pooling Program (PPP), and the Government Purchase Program and cover the period of February 2016 to February 2021. The primary focus will be on the APP. The review is expected to build on the findings from the evaluation of the programs under the Agricultural Marketing Programs Act (2014 to 2019), conducted by AAFC’s Office of Audit and Evaluation (OAE).

The OAE evaluation focused on the APP from April 2014 to March 2019. The OAE report, published on January 15, 2021, found that: there is still a need for the APP; the program aligns with departmental and government priorities; the program is largely delivered in an effective and efficient manner; and, the program met its objectives and targets over the evaluation period. The evaluation recommended that inconsistencies in the APP third-party delivery model be addressed to maximize producer benefits; the Program Risk Management Framework be revisited to reduce APP risk and financial liabilities; and, the potential for comparable interest rates on APP advances across administrators be assessed. AAFC agreed with these recommendations and implemented changes to the program in 2019 and 2020.

In addition to leveraging the OAE findings, the AMPA review will examine the relevancy and efficiency of the programs, their alignment with government priorities and Business Risk Management programming, and the APP delivery model. Should the findings and recommendations of the legislative review require it, there could be need for amendments to the Act, and potentially to its regulations.

The last legislative review of the AMPA was tabled in Parliament in November 2012. The review resulted in a number of amendments to the AMPA and its regulations aimed at improving access and flexibility under the APP and reducing administrative burden under the program. The majority of the legislative amendments were implemented in 2015, with the regulatory amendments and associated legislative amendments being made in 2016 (see SOR/ 2016-7 January 29, 2016).

Additional amendments have been made to the Agricultural Marketing Programs Regulations:

• on May 29, 2019, to increase the limit on advances from $400,000 to $1 million on an ongoing basis and temporarily increase the interest-free limit from $100,000 to $500,000 for 2019 advances on canola. The amendments are intended to address increases in farm operating expenses of more than 50% since 2007, and to help farmers impacted by market-related challenges in 2019 (see SOR/2019-157 May 29, 2019); and
• on June 21, 2022, to increase the limit on interest-free advances from $100,000 to $250,000 for the 2022 and 2023 program years. The amendments are intended to assist producers with rising costs of production (e.g., fertilizer, fuel, etc.) resulting from factors such as inflation, increasing interest rates, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. (see SOR/2022-152 June 21, 2022).

Review of Certificates of Age and Origin for Distilled Spirits Produced or Packaged in Canada Order. This order facilitates the export of Canadian distilled spirits, which amounts to approximately $785 million annually.

This order fulfills Canada’s international trade commitments as certain trading partners require, as a condition to the importation of distilled spirits from Canada, that the distilled spirits be accompanied by a certificate issued by a duly authorized official of the Government of Canada attesting to the age and origin of the distilled spirits.

These regulations pre-date the replacement of the former Live Stock Pedigree Act in 1988 with the Animal Pedigree Act.

The Animal Pedigree Act includes provisions for termination of the corporate powers of an association and its dissolution in accordance with regulations respecting the dissolution of associations under this Act. The planned approach to the review includes an assessment of the effectiveness of the regulation through discussion with stakeholders. The results of the review will inform potential regulatory and/or legislative changes.