GLACIER FARM MEDIA — Cuts at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada are not necessarily a bad thing, says a former agriculture ministry bureaucrat in the Ontario and federal government.
Greg Meredith, former deputy agriculture minister in Ontario and assistant deputy minister with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, said trimming the bureaucracy and taking a hard look at what’s working and what’s not presents an opportunity for rebirth and renewal.
“If departments come out of it smaller as a result, I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing,” he said during a recent webinar hosted by the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute and RealAgriculture.
Soon after he was elected, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that almost all government departments would be required to cut 15 per cent of their budgets by 2028-29.
Agriculture Canada has already started announcing some of the cuts it will be making.
“I really do believe that the kinds of pressure that these departments and agencies are facing will stimulate innovation in the bureaucracy.”
Greg Meredith
Former Ontario deputy agriculture minister
For instance, he thinks the food safety system has been sclerotic for a long time and could benefit from a review.
Canada’s ability to examine and approve new agricultural technologies is behind virtually all other countries in the Organization Economic Co-operative and Development.
WHY IT MATTERS: Some feel government cuts will be extremely detrimental to agriculture.
He said it’s become hugely expensive and time consuming for creators of new technologies to get regulatory approval in Canada — to the point where they’re not even trying anymore.
“A trimmer, faster-moving, more agile CFIA is probably a good thing,” said Meredith.
Eliminating Inter-Provincial Redundancy
He also noted that provinces and the federal government need to take another look at the “hodgepodge, patchwork quilt” of food safety inspection rules and better harmonize with one another.
Francis Drouin, senior adviser with Capital Hill Group, agreed, noting the CFIA has a shortage of inspectors, yet it continues to duplicate services in provinces like Ontario and Quebec, where they have their own provincial inspectors.
“You mean to tell me that eating meat from a provincially regulated plant is not as safe as eating meat from a CFIA plant?” he said.
Drouin thinks the federal government should focus its work on provinces that don’t have their own inspectors.
“That’s the kind of innovation I want to see,” he said.
However, he doesn’t think those types of recommendations will come from the public service. It will have to be politically driven.
Drouin also agreed with Meredith’s comments about Canada’s burdensome food safety regulations.
“We need change because it costs too much money to do business in the food industry in Canada right now,” he said.
There has been a lot of hue and cry about cuts to agriculture research. Agriculture Canada has announced that it is shutting down seven research farms and centres.
Drouin said the devil will be in the details as to how damaging that is going to be to Canada’s agriculture sector, noting that bricks and mortar are the biggest expenses at those sites.
“Are they able to reorganize that research somewhere else without having to lose what research was done in that particular centre?” he said.
Turbulence Ahead for CUSMA 2026
Meredith said the other big looming issue for Ottawa is the 2026 Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) review. He is pessimistic about that file.
“I think it’s going to be a very fraught negotiation process,” he said.
Meredith described U.S. President Donald Trump as volatile, unpredictable and transactional.
“He doesn’t see any deal as a win-win for anybody. Anything the other side gains, he perceives as a loss,” he said.
He believes Trump will use the CUSMA negotiations to get concessions out of Canada, whether that be on broader issues such as sovereignty or CUSMA specific issues such as supply management.
“I do expect that there will be a series of outlandish demands or claims or requests that will populate the discussion,” said Meredith.
Market Access and Industry Stability
CUSMA is an agreement that in the past provided a great deal of certainty with clear rules of engagement.
However, he said Trump is not constrained by the norms of multilateral agreements or institutions. Any agreement reached between the U.S., Canada and Mexico will be as volatile or uncertain as the president’s behaviour.
“That makes me very, very concerned about the likelihood of a solid outcome of CUSMA,” said Meredith.
He thinks there will be “very substantial” concessions in U.S. market access for dairy.
Desmond Sobool, deputy chief economist with Farm Credit Canada, did not get that impression based on a report that the U.S. Trade Representative sent to U.S. Congress.
“It didn’t seem like it was a blow-up of the dairy system,” he said.
Sobool said the USTR appeared to be pushing for “tweaks” to supply management, primarily in the form of increased access to the Canadian market for U.S. dairy products.
Drouin was encouraged by the letter that 124 national and state farm organizations in the U.S. sent to the USTR calling for a 16-year renewal of CUSMA, noting that there has been a tripling of the value of agri-food trade with the three countries between 2005 and 2023.
“Without the economic might that this trilateral agreement affords, farmer incomes would be harmed, as the industry would be saddled with additional and burdensome costs related to transportation and compliance measures,” stated the letter.
“Without the certainty guaranteed by USMCA, agribusinesses and family farms would face undependable markets and weakened global competitiveness.”
Drouin said it is a relief to see such solid support for the agreement at the ground level, where agriculture groups are pleading with the USTR to leave CUSMA untouched.
“That’s the positive news I see, despite the rhetoric and the riffraff between our politicians,” he said.
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