Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced that the Government of Canada has reduced the paperwork burden on farmers and small businesses by 20 per cent.
“This is one more example of how our Government puts Farmers First in every agriculture decision we make,” said Minister Ritz. “Reducing the paper burden is about ensuring that farmers and other agribusinesses can focus their time on their farms and operations rather than on dealing with red tape.”
The three AAFC Portfolio organizations, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC), are among 13 federal departments and agencies that collaborated to realize the Government’s reduction target. Working together, the federal institutions strived to streamline regulations, remove duplicate requirements, do away with overlapping obligations and decrease the frequency of document filing.
The CFIA has consolidated numerous Feed Trade Memoranda publications along with feed product registration checklists, directives and other related policy and procedures documents into a single, integrated publication that is available on line. This will provide better direction for regulated parties making submissions for evaluation and approval by CFIA.
For its part, CGC changed the way it collects statistical data from grain elevators across Canada. The organization implemented a Web-based application and merged three of its data collection forms together, resulting in time and cost savings at the elevators.
AAFC, CFIA and CGC will continue to work with farmers and other stakeholders to identify areas for reducing red tape and other streamlining measures, while reviewing programs and program delivery to maximize efficiency.
