Agriculture ministers from across the country were in Calgary last week for the annual federal, provincial, territorial ag ministers conference, in part discussing next agricultural policy framework.

Following meetings, the group issued the Calgary Statement to outline the key priority areas for the future framework, which is set to launch in April 2018.

In a teleconference, federal Ag Minister Lawrence MacAulay was asked about potential changes for AgriStability and AgriInvest. He says there have been a lot of discussions on the topic.

"We've got the framework in place, just how much dollars will be there and how it will be put together, will be basically put together in the next year," MacAulay says. "We want to be sure, as it was indicated quite clearly at meeting, the ministers -- and I, too -- want to make sure that... Growing Forward Two and the next policy framework... meshes properly, but the amount of funding is yet to be established."

MacAulay was asked if he feels the current ag policy suite, Growing Forward Two, needs reform.

"We've been sent back... to have a look at just business risk management, there's some concerns in that with the drop in enrollment, and what we want to make sure is to find out why, and to encourage more farmers, or if there's any tweaking we can do with the program in order to make sure farmers enlist in the program, it would be better for the program and the framework in general," he says.

MacAulay says as they look forward to the next ag policy framework, the governments are holding extensive stakeholder consultations.