(Calgary, Alberta) The AgCoalition’s producer leadership recently completed a province-wide consultation process that reaffirmed the agriculture community’s commitment to lead the ongoing work to foster a culture of farm safety in Alberta.

“Farmers, ranchers and employees demonstrated excellent leadership in completing these sessions during a busy time of year,” said Kent Erickson, AgCoalition Co-Chair. “It is clear that the agriculture community is motivated to lead the process of developing a safety culture that works effectively at the farm and ranch level.”

The meetings used a series of workshops to gain specific insights into what will and will not work on a farm or ranch in relation to the five topics being discussed during the Government of Alberta’s Enhanced Protection for Farm and Ranch Worker (Bill 6) consultation sessions. Participants also took time to identify current leading safety practices and discussed implementing a measurement approach to demonstrate improvement in agriculture safety over time. Throughout the workshops, producers expressed that farm and ranch safety should be industry-led and that the AgCoalition is poised to carry out this function.

“Farm and ranch safety has always been a top priority for the agriculture community and it was clear during our consultations that our industry wants to lead the process of building on this culture,” said Page Stuart, AgCoalition Co-Chair. “Given our far-reaching representation and producer-led structure, we believe this is an excellent function for the AgCoalition to carry out.”

Meeting insights are currently being compiled to inform key policy perspectives. In-turn, producer representatives who are part of the Government consultation process will bring forward these perspectives to ensure broader agriculture community representation. It is the expectation of the agricultural community that these persepctives be honoured and respectfully considered during the consultation process.

The AgCoalition was established on January 22, 2016 with a mandate to unify the farm and ranch community in an effort to foster a culture of farm safety in Alberta.

Media Contact

Victoria Russell
E vrussell@agcoalition.ca
T 403.219.7906
W AgCoalition.ca