Creating jobs by investing in Alberta agriculture
Alberta’s government streamlined its Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) grant process to make it easier for producers and food manufacturers to access funds.
Changes include a simplified grant application process that will allow applicants to receive their money faster, enabling companies to more easily create jobs and inject more money into the province’s economy. Funding for the five-year $406-million partnership remains unchanged.
This year, Alberta’s CAP funding will focus on investment in agriculture and food processing. Through these changes, the program will encourage innovation and technological advancement on farms and throughout the entire food supply chain.
“CAP grants have increased our farmers’, ranchers’ and producers’ competitiveness and this will continue going forward. Value-added processing is so important to the industry and a simplified grant process will help us attract private investment across Alberta and create jobs.” explained Devin Dreeshen, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, in a June 11 statement.
“Through our cost-shared programming, the Government of Canada and Alberta are working to ensure our farmers and processors can continue to innovate and create good jobs. The changes announced today will help Alberta’s agricultural sector remain competitive by helping farmers and businesses access funding more quickly,” added Marie-Claude Bibeau, federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food.
In 2020-21, the program awarded 989 grants that aim to help farmers and businesses grow and innovate. It is estimated that these grants have led to more than $150 million in investment and created more than 750 jobs in the agriculture and agri-food processing sector.
“Aliya’s Food is committed to providing Albertans, and families around the world, with high-quality, authentic frozen Indian cuisines. A grant from the CAP program went towards building the capacity to develop, test and launch five new plant-based frozen products. We thank the governments of Canada and Alberta for making this critical investment and for their efforts to grow the value-added sector,” noted Noorudin Jiwani, president, Aliya’s Foods.
Alberta’s nine programs will be organized under three themes: Growth and Value-Added, Farm Efficiency and Public Trust.
New programs will start to roll out in summer 2021. Program information will be posted on Alberta’s Canadian Agricultural Partnership website at https://cap.alberta.ca/CAP/ index.html
Quick facts
• The Canadian Agricultural Partnership is a five-year $3-billion investment by federal, provincial and territorial governments to strengthen the agriculture, agri-food and agribased products sector. This includes up to $2 billion for programs cost-shared by the federal and provincial/territorial governments that are designed and delivered by provinces and territories.
• In Alberta, the partnership is worth $406 million over the five years towards strategic programs and services that align with priorities in the province.