July 15, 2012
The current Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program (CAAP) will expire March 2014.

Ontario’s AAC is one of 14 regional councils representing every Canadian province and territory. The program was launched in 2009.

Since its inception, federal funds totalling approximately $140 million have been made available to the Ontario agriculture and agri-food industry through the AAC. That works out to approximately $7 million per year.

This funding has been proven to improve the competitiveness of Ontario farmers, food processors, and the rural community within national and global markets. A number of LO-backed research projects have involved AAC funding.

The federal government announced it had decided to consolidate and centralize all program administration to one area within the department in order to reduce the risk of duplicating project work across regions; to provide greater consistency, monitoring and accountability on selected projects; and to improve access by producers and processors to AAFC services and programs they want and need.

The impact of this decision will not be felt immediately as the current CAAP program remains open.

The government says that innovation programming will continue to help build a stronger agriculture industry and Canadian economy.