CFA submits a long wish list to the finance committee.Ottawa-The wish lists for the 2022 federal budget presented to the Commons finance committee by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) and Food and Beverage Canada (FBC) reinforce proposals that will resonate with much of the agrifood community.The date of the budget hasn't been set yet and there's no indication yet when the committee will launch public hearings on what Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland should include in it. But as of late January, 469 organizations have submitted budget briefs to the committee.The CFA called for increased financial support for producers in the new Agriculture Policy Framework (APF) that's to start in 2023 as well as aiding them in adopting environmentally beneficial practices and recognizing it as a strategic economic and environmental solutions.The government should also create a strategy to address geopolitical barriers to international trade and enhance risk management responsiveness to supply chain and climate-related disruptions.It also wants the government to leverage agriculture's full breadth of potential environmental benefits and establish carbon pricing exemptions for necessary climate change mitigation activities.As well, the government should assist in training highly-skilled agriculture workers for the future, increase the National Trade Corridor Fund and commit to a railway costing review to recalibrate the Maximum Revenue Entitlement.FBC called for a comprehensive analysis of the food industry's labour situation including a review and forecast of the agrifood sector's current and future labour and skills requirements. “This review should consider the country's economic and trade objectives and goals for food security and domestic food sovereignty and include an assessment of labour and skills availability today and into the future.”There should also be a national strategy to ensure the availability of skilled tradespeople in Canada and the government should work with the provinces on action plans for addressing skilled trades on a coordinated national basis.FBC repeated its call for immigration rules that will bring in the people required to address the processing sector's labour shortages. That should include a dedicated agrifood Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program “that recognizes the seasonal and permanent labour shortages faced by processors particularly with respect to the issue of returning workers, and for regions with on-going labour shortages.”Those actions should include a pathway to permanent residence for workers in critical sectors such as the food industry.FBC also called for a new $150-million innovation fund to support adoption of automation and robotics in the food and beverage manufacturing sector and that this fund include a skills-development component to ensure workers' skills support innovation adoption.The budget should also commit the federal government to examine the barriers to and measures to support the development of a domestic automation equipment sector for processors.As well, the government should review its regulatory framework to facilitate timely and predicable regulatory approvals of new technologies and manufacturing processes in Canada's food and beverage manufacturing sector.The CFA said APF funding has been stagnant since it started nearly 20 years ago, which means it did not keep pace with growth in the sector or even inflation. “This represents a missed opportunity to leverage the full potential of a sector with immense economic potential and prominence as a strategic environmental sector in Canada's fight against climate change.”Farmers face increased costs, expectations and financial burdens, which will constrain investment into on-farm innovation and prevent them from capitalizing on the unique opportunity provided by Canada's large natural capital endowment, innovative producers focused on continuous environmental improvement, and the consistently increasing international demand for high-quality and sustainable food products.”The full texts of their briefs and all the others presented to the MPs are available under the work section of the committee's home page ourcommons.ca/Committees/en/FINA