New Ag Minister Moves to Cut Red Tape 

New federal Agriculture Minister Kody Blois is getting down to work quickly, moving to cut red tape for the ag sector 

In a statement Tuesday, Blois said ensuring the resilience of the agriculture sector and enabling a competitive advantage and level playing field for Canadian agricultural products are among his top priorities. To that end, he said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is working to remove unnecessary red tape and burden.  

That includes: 

• Speeding up product approvals to provide alternatives to U.S.-sourced animal feed. 
  This measure will alleviate the burden of tariffs on animal feed producers by increasing the number of approved feed ingredients from within Canada or from other countries.  

• Aiming to harmonize the Canadian BSE enhanced feed ban with U.S. requirements. Globally, the incidence of BSE has declined significantly, and in 2021, the World Organisation for Animal Health recognized Canada as a country with negligible risk for BSE. Currently, differences between Canadian and U.S. requirements put the Canadian beef industry at a competitive disadvantage to its U.S. counterparts.  

• Addressing stakeholder irritants and levelling the playing field for Canadian producers through advancing key regulatory changes that support industry growth and enable fair trade. Canada will explore increasing the maximum slaughter age for feeder calves from 36 to 40 weeks to permit a higher market price for Canadian producers.  

• Removing outdated prescriptive requirements and supporting innovation to enable industry-led actions to meet consumer demands and evolving market conditions.  

“We will continue to use all available measures to reduce red tape, streamline our processes, modernize our regulations, and reinforce our commitment to open and fair trade,” Blois said. 

Appointed to his post by new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Blois replaces Lawrence MacAulay who is retiring from politics.