Agriculture Minister David Marit says the recent Federal Provincial and Territorial Agriculture Ministers meeting in New Brunswick was one of the most productive meetings he's attended.

Some key news coming out of the discussions for the livestock sector with the ministers agreeing to the creation of a vaccine bank for Foot and Mouth Disease.

Estimates suggest an FMD outbreak would impact our ability to export animals and could cost the industry anywhere from $19.4 Billion to $65 Billion in potential economic impacts.

The ministers also agreed to expand the Livestock Price Insurance Program to the Maritimes.

Marit says they had some good discussions and covered a lot of key topics including the PMRA and how decisions are made there.

He notes they were able to set up an FPT committee or working group to focus on the process of herbicide, pesticide approval, and discontinuance and how we go about that.

"We've lost some herbicides and pesticides that were working very well. The alternatives aren't working well, and the alternatives are very expensive. What we're not seeing is some consistency between the approval process here and approval process in the United States. And a good one is lambda right, and what happened there? I mean, the US farmers are still using it."

Marit, along with his counterparts from Manitoba, Alberta, and Ontario expressed interest in being a part of the new FPT committee or working group for the PMRA.

The ministers also agreed to move forward with an optional AgriStability model that should be simpler for producers. 

Marit says here in Saskatchewan we will stick with the accrual method on AgriStability.

He adds one thing they have agreed to is moving the final date for filing AgriStability moving it to June 30th to shorten the timeline for when producers will receive their payment.

The drought was also a key discussion point for Marit, Saskatchewan and Alberta have both put in a request for an agri-recovery assessment.

"We did have a good discussion about it with our colleagues from Alberta and making sure that what we're going to do, is if we can do something and if the federal government approves of it or agrees with it. That we have some consistency in what we're going to do. Just because the livestock sector in Western Canada is so fluid between the borders, we just want to make sure that we have a program that's going to work for everybody."

He says his team was hoping to have the Saskatchewan needs assessment done Friday, so they could get it into the Federal Minister's office ASAP.

Another key issue the Minister discussed was the issue around the Canadian Grain Commission changes and the fact that there should have been a cost analysis done on the impact it would have on producers.

On Friday (July 28th), the CGC announced it would be repealing the grading changes.

To hear Glenda-Lee's conversation with Provincial Agriculture Minister David Marit click on the link below.