Andrew McClelland
The Advocate
Canada’s agiculture ministers announced the introduction of a grocery store code of conduct, improvements to the AgriRecovery program and a levelling of the playing field between local and imported products at a meeting in Whitehorse this summer.
The annual summer gathering of federal, provincial and territorial agiculture ministers allows the country’s top agriculture decision-makers to come together and, hopefully, harmonize regulations and programs across all levels of government.
This year’s meeting, held from July 17-19 in the Yukon capital, yielded the announcement of $1.2 million towards the creation of a “Grocery Code Adjudication Office.”
This grocery store code of conduct will operate as a non-profit organization funded by dues collected from grocery supply-chain stakeholders. The Grocery Code Adjudication Office will act as a referee and publicly report violations of the code.
“This will definitely bring more predictability, transparency and fairness among the (supply) chain, and a mechanism to resolve conflict,” stated Quebec Agriculture Minister André Lamontagne, who has been instrumental in bringing about the creation of the code in the wake of food price increases.
At the meeting, ministers announced that Loblaws, Sobeys, Metro, Walmart and Costco had agreed to abide by the code, which should come into effect in June 2025. Sobeys operates IGA stores in Quebec.
Level playing field
Lamontagne also advocated for harmonized regulations between local and imported products, saying Quebec products have to compete with American and other imports while living up to more stringent environmental and health regulations.
“Our agricultural and processing businesses are facing more and more constraints and are constantly making efforts to meet environmental and social requirements,” said Lamontagne, adding that he is pleased with the commitment of his fellow ministers of agriculture to support Quebec’s request to explore ways to ensure that imports meet standards equivalent to those that apply to local products.
Risk programs
Lamontagne and other provincial agriculture ministers also made recommendations to improve AgriRecovery, the federal and provincial governments’ aid framework designed to help producers get back on track after adverse weather and crop failure.
Ministers stated that within the context of climate change, AgriRecovery needs to be made to work faster and take into account that different types of production need different types of support.
“We don’t think it’s productive across the country to have a program have to fire up and be specialized each time,” said John Streicker, minister responsible for agriculture for the Yukon. “We’re looking for something to be more predictable across the board.”
Lamontagne also said he was pleased with an action plan submitted by the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Working Group on Pesticide Management, stating that he is in favour of weaning Quebec producers off synthetic pesticides and promoting alternative methods of pest management.
The 2025 annual meeting of ag ministers will be held in Manitoba and chaired by Manitoba Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn.