Improved Business Risk Management programs a common theme.   Ottawa—Farm groups and food processors have a long lists of proposals on how the next federal budget could help boost the agrifood sector and, in turn, the recovery of national economic growth. The Commons finance committee, headed by Liberal MP Wayne Easter, a former NFU President and parliamentary secretary for agriculture, is collecting ideas for the 2021 budget. It will issue its recommendations later this year or early next year. Each brief, which is available on the group's website, provides considerable detail about the recommendations. The Canadian Federation of Agriculture, like most farm groups, calls for the restoration of the AgriStability payment trigger to 85 per cent and elimination of the cap on reference margins. It also wants the government to invest in the development of more Canadian food processing facilities. A Buy Canadian Campaign should be launched through the reallocation of underutilized AgriMarketing program dollars to encourage Canadians to shop for domestic products and to help exporters identify and address key export opportunities, CFA said. The supply managed sector deserves full compensation for recent trade agreement losses. The Canadian Cattlemen's Association said beef exports should be expanded through the Pacific trade deal, a new trade agreement with Britain, optimizing the European trade deal and exploring new markets. The government should invest in long-term funding for science and innovation through programs and strengthen Agriculture Canada's internal research capacity for high risk discovery research. There is a need for stable, long term funding for national animal health and disease surveillance, CCA said. It also called for a livestock tax deferral program along with updating Canada's Specified Risk Material (SRM) removal requirements that it said make Canada's processing industry less competitive. Agriculture requires improved long-term labour availability. Rural communities better Internet access, mental health programming and infrastructure and services that make rural Canada an attractive place to live and work, CCA said. The Canadian Pork Council called for financial aid “to protect the viability of Canada's pork industry by offering emergency liquidity support for pork producers that are under extreme financial pressure because of COVID-19.” It requested a three year $50 million African swine fever pandemic prevention plan to protect the pork value chain if the disease is found in Canada. For the umpteenth time, it asked the government to finally approve the establishment of the Canadian Pork Promotion and Research Agency. The Canadian Horticultural Council said fruit and vegetable growers will need significant investments to keep them in operation through 2021. Restoring a full supply of foreign farm workers is vital as well as ensuring growers have full access to crop protection products. Business Risk Management programs must be changed to meet the sector's needs and the sector needs to be able to adopt new technologies for fruit and vegetable production, CHC said. The sector was hard hit by the pandemic and recovery will be a major challenge. Food and Consumer Products of Canada, which represents food manufacturers, wants investments and supports to build a robust and competitive food and consumer products industry. Among them are changes to the Strategic Innovation Fund and Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance. It also requests support to help transition unemployed Canadians into new jobs through an Employer Training Tax Credit. The government should launch a comprehensive review of its regulations, rigorously enforce an economic lens to the design and implementation of all regulations to achieve the greatest impact on healthy eating, mental health, education and physical activity. The competitiveness of Canadian business would be aided by ensuring rules-based trade and e-commerce, FCPC said. That would enable predictable flow of ingredients, products and people. Regulatory burdens are inflating business costs and driving Canadians to shop for foreign products online. Food and Beverage Canada requested a refundable tax credit for extraordinary expenditures incurred in responding to COVID-19. A federal department or agency should be responsible for Canada's entire food supply chain with a mandate to develop a coordinated approach to all federal policy and economic measures impacting Canada's food system and to interact with provincial governments for a coordinated approach to these measures. The government should work with industry to develop a workforce action plan for the food manufacturing sector and increase support for food manufacturing by working with industry to identify the barriers to innovation and by creating a $150 million innovation fund to support innovation adoption. Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.