Vol. 148, No. 12 — June 4, 2014
Registration
SI/2014-47 June 4, 2014
AGRICULTURAL MARKETING PROGRAMS ACT
Order Fixing the Day on which this Order is made as the Day on which Section 44 of the Act Comes into Force
P.C. 2014-563 May 15, 2014
His Excellency the Governor General in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, pursuant to subsection 56(2) of the Agricultural Marketing Programs Act, chapter 20 of the Statutes of Canada, 1997, fixes the day on which this Order is made as the day on which section 44 of that Act comes into force.
EXPLANATORY NOTE
(This note is not part of the orders.)
Proposal
This Order in Council provides for the coming into force of sections 44 and 45 of the Agricultural Marketing Programs Act (AMPA).
Purpose
The purpose of this Order is to bring sections 44 and 45 of the AMPA into force, resulting in the repeal of the Agricultural Products Cooperative Marketing Act (APCMA) [section 44] and the Advance Payments for Crops Act (APCA) [section 45].
Background
The APCMA dates back to 1939 and was originally put in place to assist producers who wished to process and market their products in a cooperative manner. The APCMA authorized the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food to provide a price guarantee to organizations that pooled product and provided producers with equitable returns. The organizations then used the price guarantee to obtain financing to fund initial payments to producers upon product delivery, and to fund the processing, storage, and selling costs of the organization.
The APCA was introduced in 1977 and addressed a much broader spectrum of products than its predecessor, the Prairie Grain Advance Payments Act (PGAPA). The rationale for the APCA was to encourage orderly marketing by helping producers avoid harvest-time selling pressures due to financial constraints.
In 1997, the AMPA came into effect with the purpose of providing multiple support strategies for the marketing of agricultural products by collectively replacing the APCMA and the APCA. The AMPA is made up of three individual programs
- Advance Payments Program (APP): to improve marketing opportunities for producers of eligible products by guaranteeing the repayment of advances made to them. This program replaced the APCA.
- Price Pooling Program (PPP): to facilitate the marketing of agricultural products under cooperative plans by guaranteeing minimum average prices of products sold by marketing agencies. This program replaced the APCMA.
- Government Purchases Program (GPP): The GPP authorizes the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food to buy, sell, import, export, transport or process agricultural products. This program would be used only under unusual market circumstances where market stability is threatened. The GPP has never been used under the AMPA.
Implications
Sections 44 and 45 of the AMPA were not brought into force and were flagged on a number of occasions for review, most recently in 2013 in preparation for the tabling before Parliament of the 2014 Statutes Repeal Act Annual Report. The Statutes Repeal Act creates an automatic repeal mechanism for any act or provision that has not been brought into force within 10 years of being assented to, unless either House of Parliament adopts a resolution that it not be repealed.
Upon review, the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food has determined that the provisions repealing these acts can now be enacted. The AMPA replaces the APCMA and the APCA.
Departmental contact
Rosser Lloyd
Director General
Business Risk Management Program Development Directorate
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Telephone: 613-773-2116