Improving Access to Land for New Farmers

News Release

$150,000 in Financial Assistance for the Creation of Arterre

November 29, 2016 – Saint-Pierre-de-l’Île-d’Orléans, Quebec – Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Parliamentary Secretary Jean-Claude Poissant, on behalf of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Lawrence MacAulay, and Pierre Paradis, Quebec Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, today announced $150,000 in financial assistance to the Centre de référence en agriculture et agroalimentaire du Québec (CRAAQ) to set up Arterre, a new web platform that will coordinate the matching services offered by regional county municipalities (MRCs). This initiative is being implemented under the Canada-Quebec Growing Forward 2 agreement.

Quick facts

  • This service is aimed at matching young farmers with agricultural producers who want to give up their farm business or farm owners who want to rent or sell their farmland.
  • Arterre came about from the merger of the Land Bank initiated in 2012 by the Brome-Missisquoi MRC (municipalité régionale de comté) and the Farm Bank established the same year by the Centre d’innovation sociale en agriculture (CISA), in partnership with CRAAQ.
  • These partners decided to task CRAAQ with the creation of the new web platform and the coordination of the matching service. Arterre will be offered to all MRCs across Quebec.

Quotes

"Agriculture must remain an attractive and profitable career choice for young people to ensure the sustainability of agricultural sector. The next generation has to be prepared, and in order for this to happen, we need to make it easier to start a farm business and support the expansion of existing farms. This new matching service, Arterre, will bring together parties interested in selling and renting farmland in many regions, which will surely energize and bring prosperity to the Quebec agricultural sector."

- Jean-Claude Poissant, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food

"Needless to say Arterre will be a very effective tool designed to make it easier for the next generation to access farmland and to ensure the dynamic use of land in our regions. It will help start-up enterprises find the land they need to carry out their plans, which corresponds to one of the demands in the Pronovost report on young farmers. Knowing the positive effect that their involvement in a project such as Arterre can have on the development of agricultural activities in their regions, a number of MRCs have already included participation in this initiative in their agricultural zone development plans (plan de développement de la zone agricole - PDZA). This is a project that clearly illustrates the positive impact that implementing such development plans can have on the vitality of our regions and on young farmers."

- Pierre Paradis, Quebec Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

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