With the release of its refreshed strategic framework, Canola Forward: A Strategic Framework for 2025–2030, the Canola Council of Canada is recalibrating its role in the Canadian canola sector.
While the headlines focus on big-picture goals like volume, value, and membership, one of the most striking changes is this: the Council is winding down its field-based agronomy team.
That doesn’t mean agronomy is off the table, though.
“Agronomy has not diminished in importance,” said Chris Davison, president and CEO of the Canola Council, in an interview yesterday. “What our members and stakeholders told us very clearly, however, is that we need to refocus.”
Davison emphasized that the decision wasn’t made in isolation. The new framework was shaped through consultations with board members, the Canola Council’s broader membership, and stakeholders from across the canola value chain — and even beyond it.
“We’re operating in an environment that’s facing increased complexity and volatility,” Davison said. “That includes trade and market uncertainty, cost pressures, and challenges to our global competitiveness. The message from industry was clear: we need to focus on the most critical areas.”
That translated into three core strategic priorities: volume, value, and members. Under that structure, the Council’s role in agronomy is being repositioned — not discarded — with greater emphasis on long-term threats and production risks, rather than more immediate production challenges.
“We’ve learned a lot over the past 10 to 15 years as canola acres expanded,” Davison explained. “We’re still looking for growth, but going forward, it’s less about adding significant volumes of new acres and more about optimizing what we have. That means, in part, shifting some more of our focus toward what’s coming — the risks on the horizon — rather than what’s already here.”
The shift came with significant staffing change: the elimination of eight agronomy specialist positions. Still, Davison is quick to underscore the enduring legacy of that team’s work — and the ongoing role agronomy will play.
“We have a large library of agronomic resources that we’ll continue to expand and make available to the industry,” he said. “And we’ll keep collaborating with our provincial partners on agronomy-related work. This isn’t a goodbye to agronomy — it’s a recalibration, albeit a significant one.”
The Canola Council is also preparing to make strategic investments in other areas of capacity as it puts its new framework into action. “This is just the launch,” Davison said. “Now we begin the real work of operationalizing the framework and building our implementation plans.”
