Atlantic Canada — The federal agriculture minister just wrapped a barnstorming tour of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, and the Island’s potato country was the main stage. MacDonald Tours PEI Potato Farms put automated packing lines, crop-scouting drones, and a $750-million food-security bet in front of the cameras — while farmers got a direct line to Ottawa on what the sector actually needs.
By Maplestime News Desk | Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island | October 4, 2026
Sources: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Newswire | Last updated: October 4, 2026
Key Takeaways
- The Honourable Heath MacDonald, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, concluded a two-province farm tour of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island on October 2, 2026, according to an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada release issued from Kensington.
- On PEI, MacDonald Tours PEI Potato Farms stopped at Arthur Mooney & Sons in St. Catherine’s — a potato operation using an automated potato-packing line and custom drones for seeding, spraying, and crop scouting — and at MacAulay Farms Inc., a fourth-generation potato farm in Chepstow near Souris focused on on-farm research for economic growth and environmental sustainability.
- The Island leg also included Nabuurs Gardens’ blueberry processing facility in Brudenell, recently expanded with support from the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership and eyeing new markets; Allan Equipment Manufacturing in York, where MacDonald highlighted the new Productivity Mega Deduction; and Redview Jerseys Dairy Inc. in Kensington, a family-owned dairy producing milk from purebred registered Jersey cows.
- The Productivity Mega Deduction would let businesses immediately deduct a broader range of investments, raising the share of assets eligible for immediate expensing from roughly 15% to more than 65%.
- In New Brunswick, the minister toured Schenkels Farms, a third-generation dairy farm in Miramichi, with provincial minister Pat Finnigan; visited the Marché M. Tomate nursery and greenhouse in Rogersville, where he highlighted a $750 million investment into controlled environment agriculture through the National Food Security Strategy; and watched a cranberry harvest in progress at Ocean Spray Pleasant Ridge Cranberries.
- “It’s always rewarding to see firsthand the resilience and innovation of Atlantic Canadian farmers, and the hard work and care they put into their businesses every day,” MacDonald said. “We’ll continue working alongside farmers and processors to help their businesses grow and reach their full potential.”
What MacDonald Tours PEI Potato Farms Put On Display
Potatoes are PEI’s signature crop and one of Canada’s great agricultural success stories, so it made sense that MacDonald Tours PEI Potato Farms leaned hard into spuds. At Arthur Mooney & Sons in St. Catherine’s, MacDonald saw the kind of operation that explains why Island potatoes compete nationally: an automated packing line doing the heavy lifting and custom drones handling seeding, spraying, and crop scouting from the air. This is farming as a technology business, not a nostalgia act.
At MacAulay Farms Inc. in Chepstow — fourth-generation, near Souris — the conversation turned to on-farm research, the unglamorous trial-and-error work that keeps yields up and environmental impact down. That research focus is exactly what the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership is built to back: a five-year, $3.5-billion federal-provincial-territorial investment, with $1 billion in federal programs and $2.5 billion cost-shared 60/40 with the provinces and territories.
The $750M Bet Behind The Photo Ops
The biggest number of MacDonald Tours PEI Potato Farms did not come from the potato fields. At the Marché M. Tomate nursery and greenhouse in Rogersville, New Brunswick, MacDonald highlighted a $750 million investment into controlled environment agriculture through the National Food Security Strategy — Ottawa’s play to get more fresh produce grown closer to home, year-round, in greenhouses and indoor operations.
It is a serious bet on where food production is heading. Greenhouses do not care about a short growing season, and for Atlantic Canada — which imports a large share of its fresh produce — controlled environment agriculture is as much a food-security move as an economic one. Whether the $750 million lands where it is needed or dissolves into program overhead is the part worth watching.
Why The Tour Matters For Island Agriculture
Tours like this one are easy to dismiss as ministerial tourism, but they serve a real purpose: they put the minister in the room with the people living the policy. The Island stops covered the full spread — potatoes, blueberries, dairy, and farm equipment manufacturing — which is a fair snapshot of an agricultural economy that punches well above its size, and exactly why MacDonald Tours PEI Potato Farms put it center stage.
The Productivity Mega Deduction pitch at Allan Equipment Manufacturing in York was the tour’s other policy headline. Raising the share of assets eligible for immediate expensing from roughly 15% to more than 65% is, in the government’s words, one of the most significant changes to Canada’s business tax system in half a century. For farm operations and processors weighing big equipment purchases, that is real money — if the fine print cooperates.
MacDonald’s own verdict on the week was warm: “Our government is committed to supporting that work by investing in research and new technologies and opening doors to international markets.” Whether MacDonald Tours PEI Potato Farms translates into lasting policy attention or just a good photo week is the question Island farmers will answer at the bank — not in a press release.
Maplestime will provide updates from Minister MacDonald’s Atlantic farm tour and the $750M food-security push as announcements are made.
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Ottawa keeps announcing hundreds of millions for farming — but how much of it actually reaches the family farm, and how much evaporates into paperwork? Tell us in the comments. And share this with every Canadian who eats.
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