June 30, 2026
The Honourable Heath MacDonald, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
1341 Baseline Road
Ottawa, ON K1A 0C5
(submitted via email to aafc.npf-pcs.aac@agr.gc.ca)
Dear Minister MacDonald,
Thank you for providing the opportunity to comment on the development of the Next Policy Framework (2028-2033) for Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sector.
This submission is jointly provided by the Business Council of Alberta (BCA) and the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce (SCC). Together, our members represent a significant share of the two provinces’ private sector investment, job creation, exports, and research and development. We are committed to offering pragmatic, non-partisan solutions to improve Canada’s investment climate and prosperity.
Agriculture and agri-food are among Canada’s most important economic drivers and strategic assets. The sector supports around one in nine jobs across the country, contributes $150 billion annually to Canada’s GDP, generates significant export revenue, and is vital for food security and affordability. Saskatchewan alone contains over 40% of the country’s cultivated farmland, producing a record 41.9 million tonnes in 2025, and is a global leader in supplying lentils, durum wheat, dry peas, and potash. Alberta, which accounts for nearly a third of Canada’s total farmland, is a world-class exporter of wheat, barley, and beef. Together, the two provinces are a core reason why Canada is the fifth-largest agricultural exporter in the world.
Even so, we believe Canada has not yet come close to realizing its true potential in agriculture. Agriculture is one of the country’s biggest strategic assets, alongside energy, critical minerals, and other natural resources. That’s why, in March 2025, the Western Business Coalition — made up of BCA, SCC, and the Business Councils of British Columbia and Manitoba — released Untapped Potential: Driving Canadian Prosperity Through Natural Resources. The report highlighted the importance of strengthening Canada’s natural resource sectors, including agriculture, through improved competitiveness, investment attraction, infrastructure development, and regulatory modernization. Many of the themes identified in that report remain highly relevant to the development of the Next Policy Framework.
The SCC and BCA believe that, with the right policies, priorities, and investments, Canada can become a true global powerhouse in agriculture — not just in food production, but also associated innovation, research, commercialization, technology development and adoption, and manufacturing. Our overarching recommendation is that the Next Policy Framework, and all subsequent five-year plans, focus with single-minded purpose on that goal.
That means addressing, through focused and targeted policy action, the ongoing pressures and challenges facing the sector. These include input cost volatility, rising operating costs, climate instability, and increasingly fragmented global trade. It also means removing constraints on growth: infrastructure bottlenecks, regulatory barriers, access to labour, and limited private sector investment.
Finally, transforming Canada into a global agricultural powerhouse means harnessing the potential represented by technology and innovation. Other nations such as the United States, China, and those in the European Union are investing heavily in advanced agricultural technology such as AI, automation, and digital infrastructure to improve productivity, resilience, and competitiveness. The Next Policy Framework represents an opportunity to create the investment climate and policy framework for Canada to do the same.
We are encouraged by the extent to which the current federal government is prioritizing economic growth, competitiveness, and national resilience, including through initiatives like the National Food Security Strategy and AI Strategy. The Next Policy Framework can build on this momentum by recognizing agriculture as a strategic national priority, and by focusing on targeted, impactful policies and investments that achieve maximum impact.
In our view, that means strengthening trade-enabling infrastructure, improving regulatory competitiveness, attracting private investment, addressing labour constraints, and leveraging Canada’s water advantages. As such, the focus of our submission (contained in the Appendix attached to this letter) is on high-level recommendations to help guide the vision and priorities of the Next Policy Framework towards those ends. We leave it to others to comment on specific issues such as the design and funding of Business Risk Management programs.
Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this consultation process. BCA and SCC are committed to working with the federal and provincial governments to advance policies that unleash the full potential of agriculture in Canada. We believe the Next Policy Framework can be the first step in that direction.
We welcome the opportunity to discuss our recommendations further at your convenience.
Sincerely,
Adam Legge
President, Business Council of Alberta
Prabha Ramaswamy
CEO, Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce
Read the full submission and appendix