A request for your assistance resolving an unfair allocation of funding by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

In 2020 four Alberta ranching families saw a challenge, and opportunity.

The digital tools available to manage cow/calf ranches were too expensive and complex for most ranching families to use. And the demand for such a tool would be urgent and significant as Canada’s ranchers sought compliance with regulation proposed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

As ranchers do when they see a problem, those families got to work fixing it. Some families invested cash. Another family built prototypes and coded software. Another family found neighbours willing to test prototypes.

And we named the company Flokk, because one family had a Norwegian background and flokk is Norwegian for herd.

These families, as rural families do, shared their good idea with others, including ministries, agencies, and associates of the Government of Canada (GOC) ( Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), CFIA, and the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency ) expecting, as is practice in rural communities, that when good people see a good idea they pitch in and get the job done.

Those families believed their federal government would be willing to help because Flokk offered an innovative solution to a problem caused by GOC; regulation mandating (and imposing fines on if they failed) Canada’s 60,000 ranching families report, frequently and under tight time timelines, births, deaths, and movement of their cattle. Flokk received encouraging words from GOC, but no support.

In June 2025, by happenstance, Flokk discovered $230k in funding had been provided by Agriculture and Agri-Foods Canada to another company to appropriate our innovation. The funding was provided through a method no other company could access. Flokk reached out to Minister Heath MacDonald asking for his help but AAFC’s response was that their priority is process, not fairness, so no solution was forthcoming.

If hard work, hopeless economics, and getting kicked into the mud caused Alberta ranchers to quit then none of the families who founded Flokk would still be in Alberta, let alone putting our money and time at risk pursuing the almost impossible challenge of launching a Canadian AgTech startup.

But Flokk cannot compete against the bottomless pockets of the Government of Canada. And it will be impossible for Flokk, or any other competitor, to succeed when GOC has already selected the company they favour to benefit from this opportunity created by federal government regulation.

I propose to you Minister MacDonald that we desire the same outcome; Canadian ranching families being world leaders in effective and efficient livestock animal traceability. Flokk remains eager to work with you, and other GOC agencies, to realize this important objective. We encourage readers to reach out to Minister MacDonald at heath.macdonald@parl.gc.ca to encourage him to work with Flokk to find a fair and equitable solution.