This year’s CSGA Annual General Meeting was held in Halifax, Nova Scotia from July 10 to 13, 2017, just days after Canada celebrated its 150 Birthday. As one of Canada’s three founding provinces and the home to Pier 21, the gateway to new beginnings for thousands of immigrants to Canada in the years following the 1867 union, Halifax was the ideal location for this year’s meeting. With the unveiling of CSGA’s new 5 year Strategic Plan (http://seedgrowers.ca/strategic-plan/) and the related discussions around the Seed Synergy Collaboration Project’s next generation seed sector vision and a potential end point royalty system for Canada, the signs of an emerging ‘seed confederation’ and shared vision for the seed sector were hard to miss. With the Canadian Seed Trade Association holding its annual meeting in Halifax during the same week, there were unprecedented opportunities for industry networking and shared family social events, including, most notably a joint CSGA-CSTA Family Fun Night at Pier 21, on July 10. Good times were had by all, and the record crowd of over 400 was treated to music by the outstanding Halifax based band Squid, pirate entertainers and plenty of lobster. Special thanks to Bayer who sponsored this event. CSGA members also enjoyed an additional family social event the following evening at the legendary Shore Club in Hubbards, N.S. Many thanks to SeCan for sponsoring this event, where over 200 CSGA members, industry colleagues and family were treated to more live music and lobster. Onthebusinesssideofthemeetingagenda,thehighlight was the Wednesday, July 12 morning session where over 300 representatives from the seed industry’s six major associations gathered to discuss the next phase of the Seed Synergy Collaboration Project; designed to forge Celebrating a United Industry consensus around a next-generation seed regulatory system for the country. This lively and stimulating exchange began with a brief presentationfromtheexecutivedirectorsofeachoftheSeed Synergy organizations outlining the work completed to date and the proposed focus for the next phase of the Project. It was followed by a panel of industry leaders that in- cluded, former CSTA President Scott Horner, CSGA First Vice-President Jonathan Nyborg, SSGA President Cathy Fedoruk, CSAAC President Morgan Webb, CropLife Can- ada Chairman and Syngenta Canada CEO Jay Bradshaw and former CSTA President and SeCan General Manager Jeff Reid, all of whom who shared their views on the Seed Synergy Collaboration Project and what they saw as our collective priorities going forward. In summing up the session, facilitator Warren Wilson, noted the many areas of common ground and strong collective desire on the part of all parties to continue the discussion and move toward the development of concrete proposals for change over the coming year. Other sessions of note included: 1) presentations and panel discussions on important new initiatives being considered by the Grains Value Chain Round Table to stimulate more investment in cereal breeding, with a particular focus on UPOV 91 enabled end point royalty systems and 2) presentations and discussions on the CSGA’s new strategic plan and related implementation priorities, including: the proposed overhaul of the Canadian Regulations and Procedures for Pedigreed Seed Crop Production (commonly known as Circular 6); a proposed single window seed certification model, and planned new initiatives in the area of seed grower professional development. Overall, an extremely successful, productive and unifying meeting that would not have been possible without the record breaking support of our many and generous sponsors. CSGA 2017 AGM