Prior to the mid-1980s, Canada heavily supported the agricultural sector through measures such as import tariffs, export and production subsidies, and price and production controls. The dominant features of agricultural policy were supply management measures in the dairy and poultry sectors, collective marketing in grains and oilseeds, and income stabilisation programmes (Barichello, 1995[7]). Support varied between eastern and western provinces, partly due to Canada’s decentralised political system, and the independence of provincial governments in policies such as marketing legislation (Anderson, 2009[8]).
In the mid-1980s, Canada began agricultural policy reform, particularly in the grain sector. In 1990, the Western Grains Stabilization Program, which was intended to stabilise net margins for major grains and oilseeds from western Canada, was terminated (Anderson, 2009[8]). This was replaced by the National Tripartite Stabilization Program (NTSP), which established federal-provincial cost-sharing of programmes (Antón, Kimura and Martini, 2011[9]). The Farm Income Protection Act of 1991 changed Canada’s approach to supporting producers by moving from commodity-specific policies towards programmes supporting farm incomes. The Act established two safety-net programmes: (1) the Gross Revenue Insurance Plan (GRIP, 1991-1996/2002) to protect against reductions in revenues and yields; and (2) the Net Income Stabilization Account (NISA, 1991-2009) to subsidise savings accounts for individual producers (Anderson, 2009[8]; Klein and Storey, 1998[10]) Furthermore, compliance with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and free trade agreements of the early 1990s (NAFTA) accelerated the reform process, eliminating most commodity-based policies except those targeting supply-managed commodities (Antón, Kimura and Martini, 2011[9]). In 1995, transport subsidies to grains were abolished (Anderson, 2009[8]), ending the period of high market price support to these commodities (Figure 6.7).
The Agricultural Income Disaster Assistance (AIDA) programme introduced in 1998 was the first to comply with criteria for income insurance and safety-net programmes under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Agriculture. AIDA was established to serve as a core income stabilisation policy, reducing the need for ad hoc programmes. The “disaster” component was integrated into subsequent programmes: the Canadian Farm Income Program (CFIP, 2001-03); the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization (CAIS, 2004-08); and AgriStability (Anderson, 2009[8]; Antón, Kimura and Martini, 2011[9]; Statistics Canada, 2021[11]).
Since 2003, agricultural policy objectives and approaches are set out in longer-term agricultural policy frameworks developed through co-operation by federal, provincial and territorial governments. The first framework covered five areas: (1) business risk management, (2) food safety and quality, (3) environment, (4) science and innovation, and (5) renewal (skills and training) (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2005[12]). Initially, the federal government delivered programmes directly, however the Growing Forward framework (2008-13) transferred programme implementation to the provinces and territories, allowing for more flexibility and better adaptability to local needs (OECD, 2015[13]). During this time, the AgriStability and AgriInvest programmes replaced CAIS and NISA, respectively, continuing to provide farmers with income stabilisation products and subsidised saving accounts. The Growing Forward 2 framework (2013‑18) strengthened the role of these programmes and incorporated additional initiatives, such as AgriInsurance (previously referred to as the Crop Insurance) and the AgriRecovery disaster framework (Anderson, 2009[8]; Antón, Kimura and Martini, 2011[9]; Statistics Canada, 2021[11]). Risk-management programmes have continued to evolve under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (2018-23) and the Sustainable Canadian Agriculture Partnership (2023-28) (see previous sections).
