While some local members of the agricultural sector are happy with the recommendations made by the CAAAQ – the Commission on the future of Quebec’s Agriculture and Agri-food Sector — it now remains to be seen whether the provincial and local governments will apply the suggestions.

“I’m very anxious to see what will happen,” said Ste. Anne de Bellevue resident Frédéric Thériault. Thériault is a vegetable producer with a farm in Les Cèdres who sells his products at the Ste. Anne Market. The farmer's market operates out of the St. Georges Church’s basement on Saturdays during the winter and on the boardwalk in the summer.

Chaired by former senior civil servant Jean Pronovost, the CAAAQ released its recommendations recently after one and a half years of public consultations and hearing just under 800 presentations and briefs across the province.

The report covers a variety of topics, including government assistance, food processing and distribution, human resources, research, marketing of farm products, and the environment.

The main conclusion noted in the report is that the industry needs changes: “(T)he agriculture and agri-food sector has a system of laws, regulations, structures, and models of operation that are so closed they are in danger of literally suffocating it,” the report states. “While preserving its pillars, it is imperative to air out the system and inject some oxygen into it so it can innovate and diversify, to form original partnerships and undertake daring new actions. In short, we must open up the system.”

Chandra Madramootoo, McGill University’s dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at Ste. Anne de Bellevue’s Macdonald Campus, said he is generally pleased with the report. He pointed out research and innovation and environmental issues, such as watershed management, water policy, and animal welfare, as topics he flipped to first in the 272-page document. Personnel training and human resources was another.

“You can’t just be a corn producer by just knowing how to grow corn. You have to know the whole range of issues, from the marketing to the transport, to the environment and the business side,” he said.

Thériault pointed out the importance placed on local production.

“There is one recommendation that says the goal of agriculture in Quebec should be to feed Quebecers. And this seems very important to me,” Thériault said.

The CAAAQ also made 13 different recommendations, calling on the government to do more to support agricultural producers. “It’s a domain where, presently with the current economical context, it’s difficult to operate. If the structure was changed a bit according to the recommendations of the CAAAQ, we could hope to see improvement,” Thériault added.

Madramootoo said he is also anxious to see where the CAAAQ’s 49 recommendations lead, especially with no extra public money available.

“It’s a matter of how you take the existing pot of money that’s available and re-jig it to address some of the recommendations in there,” he said, adding it is not solely up to the government, but to all of the players. “The onus is not only on the government, but on all the stakeholders – the private sector, universities, research centres, producers. Since we are all implicated, we should work on the recommendations together and not say this is something only for the government to work on.”

To view the full CAAAQ report, check www.caaaq.gouv.qc.ca.