It’s budget season in Canada. Throughout March, provincial/territorial governments trickle out their spending plans for the next 12 months, highlighting the projects each ministry believes has the most benefit. Every province/territory is different, as is every budget, and they often shift throughout the year as unpredictable events reveal themselves. However, what is released in the spring hints at priorities, which are important for agricultural planning.
This is an assessment of provincial/territorial initiatives. While nearly every province/territory participates in the cost-shared provincial-federal program, Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (SCAP), a 5-year agreement which helps deliver programs for improving regional agri-food industry resiliency, food knowledge and extension, and agricultural competitiveness, funding increases for those initiatives usually requires federal approval. Decisions regarding SCAP funding were made in 2023 and are important for acknowledging and improving regional community or sector inefficiencies. This blog, however, looks past SCAP (which, admittedly does contain many small projects regarding agricultural infrastructure), instead choosing to focus on direct, 100 per cent provincially/territorially made decisions.
The agricultural focus for British Columbia lies in its tax exemptions, which are useful tools for partial cost alleviation in instances like with fuel and farmland, where neither government nor farmers have power in market performance or movements. Improvements to land transfer legislation – including intergenerational farm transfer exemptions from property tax – cost the BC government approximately $9M more in exemptions. Policies such as these encourage agricultural land remain productive in the long term through successive ownership, which is vital for the farming community amid urban expansion and costly land prices. Similar relief is partially felt by the expected fuel tax exemptions, which apply to certain agricultural fuels. It will be interesting to see how BC shifts its fuel tax exemption spending, if at all, in response to current 2026 geopolitical conflict. The upcoming year is expected to also see increased spending on provincial sales tax (PST) exemptions for basic groceries. This implies less an improvement to the program and, more likely, a government recognition of a worsening food insecurity issue in BC.
Despite referencing the need for strength in Alberta’s value-added agriculture, their budget estimates to only spend about 2 per cent of its capital budget on services for all of agriculture, business development, and natural resources. As we have discussed on SAIFood in the past, infrastructure and capital investment, in general, appear to be barriers to scaling the competitiveness of Canadian production; it will be interesting to see how the industry overcomes the signal that investment has already been decided for the next few years.
After a tough few climatic years budget directly citing compensatory payments to drought-afflicted farmers and high price premiums as reasons for projected provincial spending increases. Many advantages for Albertan farmers are indirect; highway investment, for instance, improves agricultural accessibility and expansion capabilities. However, more direct investments, like the Cooperative Seed Processors Program, will be influential in provincial seed processing upgrades and subsequent market opportunities.
Saskatchewan offices have budgeted less for business risk management programs than in previous years. When you pick apart where those changes exist, they almost all exist because of transferring funds from crop insurance premiums into AgriStability, which protects farmers from large drops in farm margins. The exact reasoning behind these decisions is unclear however, with global conflicts impacting fertilizer supply, production costs, and consumer prices, expanding AgriStability funding may be in preparation for worsening global market conditions that traditional crop insurance cannot accommodate.
Similar to Alberta, Saskatchewan appears to believe that the environment for technology adoption and agricultural innovation is self-sufficient. Despite acknowledging the necessity for provincial investment into, among other sectors, value-added agriculture, there has been zero change to expected funding towards agricultural research and technology. Short term options appear to remain available to Saskatchewan farmers although it is hard to predict how resourceful they will have to be in the long term.
2025 was a year of growth for Manitoba’s agricultural sector; that momentum is expected to continue into 2026. One aspect of Manitoba’s competitivity plan involves the Global Agriculture Technology Exchange: a research and marketing facility for cereal quality and innovation (expected earliest 2027). More indirect improvements to agriculture and food security are observed in Port of Churchill Plus, which moves to strengthen year-round trade in the Arctic through ships, rails, and storage. With Canada’s overall movement toward market diversification, projects like these will help the sector remain competitive and unify the messaging our agriculture conveys on a global platform. Consumers can also look forward to grocery advantages like complete PST exemptions beginning July 2026, the price freeze on milk (already in place), and improved sector competition in response to export opportunities.
In acknowledgement of Ontario’s global agricultural performance and domestic food consumption, major funding into agricultural expansion is underway in the North, with five economically stimulating and crop production projects funded until mid-2026. The most notable influx of agricultural spending is moving towards research and innovation; in the wake of federal asset losses, Ontario appears to be making a concentrated effort on protecting its own sector-building capacity.
In line with other provinces, the Ontario government acknowledges the difficult market and climatic positions of farmers in the last few years and invested more into provincial risk management programs. Very little insight exists in the budget regarding what specific supply chain pressures Ontario is preparing for, however compensatory funds will be made available for the challenges ahead.
Quebec is expected to spend on food bank operations for 2026, with subsequent food security efforts focusing more on updating infrastructure and ensuring long term resiliency. In doing so, the provincial government is relying heavily on community support for its food banks when funding priorities switch to efficiency to expansion.
Direct investment into agricultural competitiveness, including subsidizing infrastructure, is partially funded from agricultural contingency funds, and therefore may not be fully realised if required for immediate farmer assistance. The temporary pause for Health Service Contributions, which go directly back to natural resource and agricultural sectors, while a source of some relief to involved community members, means there is less revenue flowing into the accounts Quebec will rely on to meet budget promises.
Within New Brunswick’s 2026 budget, government is increasing agricultural financial assistance, with more expected to be spent on compensatory payments and potential disaster relief than on improving competitiveness in either the agriculture or aquaculture sectors. Although statistics like that can sound concerning, infrastructure investment in agriculture and aquaculture is expected to nearly double what was spent in the last 12 months. That is excitement is balanced by the movement towards tolls for non-New Brunswick vehicles, which could have serious interprovincial trade implications once operational. Whether because of previously budgeted choices or due to macroeconomic conditions, New Brunswick is predicting their agriculture sector bring in less revenue than in previous years, which could have informed predicted 2026 spending.
The budget documents, themselves, do not have much clarifying information however, it appears as though New Brunswick is following the leads of federal government, moving veterinary services and fee responsibility to the private sector. New Brunswick is beginning the process of defunding provincial veterinary and animal disease labs and services.
Agri-food is labelled a major investment priority for Nova Scotia, especially in regard to market diversification. Given the size of the province, a concerted effort is being put into local food accessibility, both in its school breakfast/lunch programs and institutional availability. Likely, these efforts are a response to 2025 agricultural performance slightly lagging what was expected, as is the expected increase in risk management spending (mainly in insurance) in line with other provinces. The budget mentions increased efforts to curb shellfish fraud (the act of illegally selling a product or misrepresenting what the product actually is), which sees more funds moved from animal and crop protection services into provincial food inspections.
Yukon is not known as an agricultural powerhouse. Therefore, there is not official department of agriculture; agriculture falls under the responsibility of Energy, Mines, and Resources. Similarly, the majority of agricultural funding falls under the SCAP suite of programs. While there is an opportunity for Yukon to expand its food productivity, the capacity is lower when compared to other regions of Canada, and Yukon will unfortunately remain reliant on direct school or community food programs opposed to sector expansion.
The primary involvement of Northwest Territories in SCAP is to develop northern agriculture. Canada’s north has strong food insecurity rates, continuously worsened by climatic and political challenges, although the territory expects to spend the same amount on traditional food sourcing programs. Instead, government initiatives focus on climate resilience and infrastructure, with the drive for economic growth but albeit very little consideration of feasible expansion. It is also worth noting that agricultural development is one of the first initiatives mentioned in this budget and yet, what territorial funding exists for food production and distribution development is unchanged. It will be interesting to see what government perceives as successful northern growth.
Overall, it appears that provinces are preparing for the worst, which unfortunately focuses on short term, reactionary solutions. Reduced federal investment into agriculture has, instead of inspiring provincial change, forced heavy reliance on what little public funding is available (i.e. SCAP). With such little insight into specific project targets, 2026 will be an interesting year for comparing available agricultural funds to optimistic innovation adoption and economic growth.
2026/2027 estimate | Difference from 2025/2026 | Agriculture, aquaculture, farm, and food highlights | |
|---|---|---|---|
$134,721,000 | -10.9% | increased agri-food competitiveness spending; reduced spending on production insurance; Centre for Food, Wine, and Tourism (2027) | |
$963,000,000 | -0.1% | direct irrigation investment and rehabilitation; seed processing investment; Lakeland College beef yard upgrade | |
$662,667,000 | +6.0% | increased AgriStability funds; increased crop insurance spending | |
$540,000,000 | +29.8% | increase Young Farmer Rebate on loans; Crown land lease rates frozen; (farmland) School Tax Rebate | |
$1,031,200,000 | -8.3% | farm irrigation development; agri-food infrastructure | |
$1,531,000,000 | 2.6% | infrastructure investment (greenhouses); regional agricultural conservation/ biodiversity improvement | |
$54,313,000 | 3.4% | direct market expansion investment; local food network investment | |
$542,339,000 | -27.0% | agrifood market diversification; Innovation Hub for seafood productivity; increased local food availability | |
$1,532,000 | No change | SCAP-delivered programs | |
$3,213,000 | 2.1% | community food programs; increased traditional food support | |
Full budget not yet available | |||
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