A multi-stakeholder working group convened by the Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) has released a final report recommending sweeping structural reforms to Alberta’s agritourism sector, covering insurance access, regulatory clarity, liability protection, and industry coordination. The report was produced by the Agritourism Strategy Working Group, established following a 2025 meeting between the RMA and Alberta’s Minister of Jobs, Economy, Trade and Immigration.

What the Working Group Found

The working group drew its membership from the RMA, the Government of Alberta, Agritourism Alberta, practising operators, and member municipalities. Its mandate was to identify barriers to responsible sector growth and recommend solutions. The final report organised its findings under five themes: risk, regulatory barriers, education and promotion, operator support, and partnerships.

On insurance, the report found that many operators cannot access affordable or appropriate coverage, while insurers lack consistent frameworks for assessing the risk profile of diverse on-farm activities. On regulation, the group identified a widespread demand for greater consistency and predictability across municipal approval processes, without compromising safety standards.

The Six Recommendations

The working group’s report made six formal recommendations directed at government and industry:

• Establish a provincial statutory definition of “agritourism” to anchor policy development, promotion, and capacity-building programs.
• Strengthen liability protection for operators through legislatively backed standardised signage and risk communication requirements.
• Develop municipal policies and approval pathways that actively encourage agritourism development at the local government level.
• Fund and deliver an official public awareness and marketing campaign for the sector.
• Build a centralised operator hub providing access to data, regulatory information, and best-practice resources.
• Establish a standing multi-stakeholder advisory committee to implement the recommendations and guide long-term sector evolution.

The RMA has indicated it will continue working with the provincial government on implementation.

What This Means for WA Operators

The Alberta report is a useful reference point because it names, in a formal government-endorsed document, the exact problems that agritourism operators consistently raise regardless of jurisdiction: insurance that doesn’t fit the product, inconsistent council approvals, no agreed definition of what agritourism actually is, and no central place to find regulatory guidance.

WA operators are navigating the same terrain. Insurance products designed for conventional accommodation or standard farm operations frequently fail to cover the actual risk mix of an agritourism business, whether that is a school farm visit, a pick-your-own harvest day, or a farm stay with trail rides. Without a consistent WA definition of agritourism embedded in planning and local government frameworks, operators face unpredictable approval outcomes depending on which shire they sit in.

Alberta’s recommendation for a centralised operator hub is worth noting directly. That is precisely what WAAA is building, including the member forum, the Professional Support Network of vetted advisers, and the resource library. WAAA is small and volunteer-led at this stage, which means the hub is under construction rather than fully operational. The honest answer to “where is WA’s equivalent of this?” is that it exists in framework form and is being built as the membership base grows.

The Alberta process also illustrates the value of a formal industry voice in government consultations. The working group produced a document that is now on the Minister’s desk because there was a recognised body, Agritourism Alberta, with a seat at the table. WAAA is the equivalent body for WA, established in 2024 specifically to occupy that position in state and local government conversations. Operators who are not yet members are leaving that advocacy capacity underbuilt at exactly the point when WA’s own planning and regulatory frameworks are still taking shape.

If you are waiting for WA to run its own equivalent process before acting, Alberta’s experience suggests the time to engage is before the report is written, not after.