By Tristan Tuckett (@TristanTuckett on Twitter)

Agriculture Minister Discusses Impact of Provincial Budget

Apr 18, 2016 | 9:21 AM

EDMONTON:  Several agricultural agencies have been dismantled with the tabling of the provincial budget.

This includes the Agricultural Development Committee, Alberta Farm Safety Advisory Council, the Agricultural Operation Practices Act – Policy Advisory Group, and the Alberta Next Generation Advisory Council.

Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier says these agencies have fulfilled their mandate or haven’t met for many years.

Another change will see the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency (ALMA) move back under government control, which will save about $3 million a year.

“There’s also going to be much more direct contact with the stakeholders with government instead of going through an agency, but at the same time acknowledging the good work that ALMA is doing and making sure that the industry knows that that work will continue, the programs, projects, grants, and contracts that are ongoing right now will continue and looking forward to other applications on a case by case basis as we go forward,” Carlier says.

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In total, the agriculture department saw a reduction in its programming department of $36 million, but Carlier says while that looks like a cut, it really isn’t.

“Because we had that late budget last year, we had to roll in a lot of our emergency funding for the wildfires into the budget last year, so it looks like that $30 million has been cut from this one, but in reality that’s what it normally would of done anyway in a normal year type budget, because emergency funding is only allocated or asked for when and if we need it,” explains Carlier.

He adds there were some hard decisions in this budget, but believes this is mostly a status quo budget for agriculture, recognizing the importance of agriculture and forestry across the province, which he points out are two of the shining stars in our troubled economy right now.