Question Period Note: POTATO WART ON PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

Q1 – What do growers have to do to meet the CFIA’s program requirements? Q2 – Will Prince Edward Island seed potatoes be allowed to resume movement to the U.S. and domestically? Q3 – Will the Government of Canada review its Ministerial Order in order to lift or relax the requirements? Q4 (AAFC) – How does the Government of Canada support potato farmers through federal programs? Q5 – What is the Government of Canada response to the potato wart judicial review?

R1 - Potato wart is a quarantine pest in Canada and many other countries. Control measures are required to prevent the spread of potato wart including surveillance, biosecurity and traceability.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is working with the industry and various stakeholders to develop a new National Potato Wart Response Plan to reduce the risks and minimize the impact of potato wart on Canadian industry, keep trade open and prevent potato wart from spreading. R2 - Domestic movement of seed potatoes from PEI is restricted under the Potato Wart Order and is only allowed following a case-by-case evaluation. Currently two farms are able to move seed potatoes domestically.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is in discussions regarding options for the establishment of pest-free places of production and pest-free production sites with producers in PEI to facilitate broader movement. R3 - The requirements of the Potato Wart Order help contain, control and prevent the spread of potato wart to protect this important agriculture sector and enable continued trade.
There is currently no timeline in place to review this Ministerial Order but discussions with industry and stakeholders are ongoing to support the development of a new National Potato Wart Response Plan for the management of potato wart. R4 - The Government of Canada acted quickly to provide up to $28M under the Surplus Potato Management Response Plan to effectively manage the potato surplus.
The Government provided a one-time payment adjustment to seed producers that will better align the support received through the Surplus Potato Management Response Plan with compensation provided under the Potato Wart Compensation Regulations.
Farmers also have access to a suite of Business Risk Management programs including AgriStability, AgriInsurance and AgriInvest to help them manage income declines at the whole-farm level. R5 - The Government of Canada accepted the findings of the Federal Court on April 14, 2023, with regard to the legality of the Ministerial Order. Decisions continue to be guided by solid data, science, international standards, legislative authorities and best practices.
The Prince Edward Island Potato Board has appealed part of the findings.

Potato wart is soil-borne fungal disease that can remain dormant in a field for more than 40 years. It is spread through the movement of infested tubers, soil and farm equipment. It reduces yield and can make potatoes unmarketable, but does not pose a risk to human health or food safety.
Control measures are required to help manage the spread of potato wart including:
• Surveillance
• Biosecurity
• Traceablility
Potatoes produced in the affected fields must be disposed of or processed in a manner that would not spread the disease. There is no rapid detection method for potato wart and there are no chemical treatments that could be used to eradicate it.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) currently follows the Potato Wart Domestic Long Term Management Plan (2009) developed specifically for potato wart to minimize the impact on Canadian industry and to help prevent this quarantine pest from spreading within Canada or to other countries through trade.

Timeline for most recent detections
In October 2021, the CFIA confirmed the presence of potato wart on two processing farms in Prince Edward Island (PEI). The investigations that followed are now complete and involved the collection and analysis of almost 50,000 soil samples. Potato wart was detected in an additional 4 fields as part of the investigation. Since 2000, potato wart has been detected in 37 fields, across all three counties of PEI.
In the fall of 2023, the CFIA conducted the third annual national survey for potato wart to determine if it is detected in the soil samples collected and tested from fields located across Canada where potatoes are grown. As in previous years, the national survey was conducted in fields in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
Also during the fall of 2023, the CFIA conducted additional potato wart surveillance activities in PEI for the first time since 2021. The 2022 survey activities did not include PEI because resources were focused on the ongoing investigations of potato wart on the Island. The objective of the 2023 PEI potato wart survey is to determine whether potato wart is detected in soil samples from unrestricted fields (i.e. fields that do not meet the definition of “restricted area” under the Potato Wart Order).
On April 1, 2022, the United States (U.S.) indicated that imports of PEI potatoes for consumption could resume, with conditions. The U.S. has updated their federal order regarding PEI potatoes accordingly. Field grown seed potatoes from PEI may not be exported to the U.S. at this time.

Current management program
The requirements under the Potato Wart Order are expected to help mitigate the risk of potato wart spreading into other parts of Canada and support continued trade. The current program allows PEI seed potato farms to operate and grow seed potatoes for use within the province and supports the continued movement of table stock and processing potatoes to other provinces. Seed potatoes are permitted to move out of the province when specific criteria are met. At present, two farms have met the criteria to do so.
The CFIA Potato Wart Domestic Long-Term Management Plan (2009) remains in place and is being applied to the new finds, as are regulatory measures to help prevent potato wart spread elsewhere in Canada, including in PEI. The CFIA is currently working with industry and stakeholders to develop a new National Potato Wart Response Plan.

The CFIA is also working to develop a program for Pest Free Places of Production (PFPP) and Pest Free Production Sites (PFPS) in PEI.
Proposed criteria for establishing PFPP and PFPS are currently under review by PEI stakeholders with feedback expected before the end of 2023. Next steps will be to discuss the criteria with potato producers outside of PEI.

Advisory panel on potato wart disease management on PEI
The CFIA engaged an international scientific advisory panel who provided its non-binding report to the CFIA on December 17, 2022, and to stakeholders on December 19, 2022. The panel presented its final report to the CFIA, AAFC, the government of PEI and Canadian industry stakeholders on January 16, 2023, and responded to questions.
The report is being used to continue discussions with industry, provinces and other pertinent stakeholders on the path forward for potato wart in PEI and the rest of Canada. It will be considered when informing the Agency’s future decisions on potato wart in PEI. These decisions will be made in accordance with its plant protection mandate as Canada’s National Plant Protection Organization under the International Plant Protection Convention.
The report is publically available to all Canadian stakeholders on the CFIA website in both official languages. There are three methods to assess the viability of potato wart spores: field testing, pot bioassay, and microscopic examination of spores.
All three methods have known limitations, which could result in false positive or false negative results. Given the need to help control, contain, and prevent the spread of potato wart, the CFIA has not implemented any of these methods for diagnostic purposes.
Together with key partners including Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the CFIA is closely monitoring the latest scientific research on potato wart and exploring opportunities to collaborate and accelerate research in priority areas, such as developing a reliable viability test using new molecular methods.

Compensation
The Potato Wart Compensation Regulations were enacted in 2003 and may provide compensation for certain losses resulting from treatment, prohibition, restriction or disposition required because of the pest.
Compensation may be available to affected parties who have been issued a notice by the CFIA for any treatment, prohibition, restriction or disposition imposed as a result of the presence of potato wart.
The Prince Edward Island Potato Board has indicated that the Potato Wart Compensation Regulations are dated and should be reviewed. The CFIA supports this request.
Federal Programs to Support Potato Farmers (AAFC Content)
1) Business Risk Management Programs
Business risk management (BRM) programs – including AgriStability, AgriInvest, AgriInsurance and AgriRecovery are joint Federal-Provincial-Territorial (FPT) programs that are in place to help producers manage risks that threaten the viability of their farms and provide protection against different types of income and production losses.
The full range of BRM programs is available to support impacts on potato producers in PEI. These are 60:40 cost shared programs between the federal government and the province.
• AgriStability protects producers against large declines in farming income for reasons such as production loss, increased costs and market conditions. The program provides approximately $2.6 million a year to support PEI producers in need.
• AgriStability can provide support quickly if producers apply for interim payments for immediate financial challenges. Producers can enroll in the program for 2023 in the early months of the New Year.
• For the 2021 and 2022 program years, the following changes applied:
 Late Participation - Producers who had not applied before the program deadline could still enroll after the deadline but were subject to a 20% penalty for any payments issued
 Interim Payments - The program interim payments have been increased from 50% to 75% of the expected financial assistance
• A large portion of potato producers (92%) participate in the AgriInvest program, and funds are immediately available to use as they wish. The average account balance is approximately $90,000.
• AgriInsurance will respond to production and quality losses directly caused by potato wart (i.e. directly infected farms).
• AgriInsurance will provide support for farms that face production and quality losses directly caused by potato wart, with coverage for up to 90% of their losses.
• For producers with advances under the Advance Payments Program, a Stay of Default for outstanding loans was granted in March 2022 to provide producers additional flexibilities to repay the outstanding advances. If a Stay of Default was not granted, many producers would have been in non-compliance and would have been required to pay their advance or find other sources of security within 30 days. Failing that, producers would have been declared in default and would have been ineligible for new advances. In general, a Stay of Default can be implemented four months before impending default at the request of the administrator (e.g. early June for advances due in September 2022); however, in the case of PEI potatoes, the impending default was much sooner than the repayment deadline. In order to be eligible for the Stay of Default, producers must have been in good standing under the program and must have had sufficient potatoes of marketable quality in storage to cover their outstanding loans.
• AAFC records show that the 2021 Stay of Default has protected 90 PEI potato producers ($14,892,000 in advances) from being declared in default. All of the PEI potato producers protected by the Stay of Default were able to repay their 2021 advances by the deadline.

2) Other AAFC Programs
The Surplus Potato Management Response Plan (SPMRP) was cost-shared between Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Prince Edward Island Department of Agriculture and Land. As part of this plan, the Government of Canada committed to provide up to $28M and the Province of PEI up to $12.2M. The PEI Potato Board delivered the plan on behalf of both governments to manage potatoes that had been rendered surplus.
The SPMRP aimed to divert as many potatoes as possible to processors, packers, other markets and food banks to minimize the amount of surplus potatoes that had to be destroyed and to support environmentally sound destruction of potatoes where needed. Destruction activities were completed in early March 2022 and diversion activities continued until August 31, 2022.
In the spring/summer of 2022, a difference in support level arose between those seed potato producers who destroyed their product under AAFC’s SPMRP and those who were compensated under CFIA’s Potato Wart Compensation Regulations. To address this difference in support levels, AAFC worked with the PEI Potato Board to deliver a one-time payment adjustment to those affected seed potato producers. The SPMRP contribution agreement with the PEI Potato Board was amended to allow for adjustment of $12 per cwt of seed potatoes that were destroyed under the SPMRP.
Payments under the SPMRP were delivered to producers from March 2022, through to the end of March 2023.

• The Government of Canada is committed to helping contain, control and prevent the potential spread of potato wart and protecting the economic viability of the Canadian potato industry.
• Under the requirements of the Ministerial Order, over 95% of PEI potatoes are eligible for movement to the rest of Canada, as well as export to PEI’s primary export market, the U.S.
• The Canadian Food Inspection Agency will continue to engage with growers, provinces and trading partners on program elements during the development of the new National Potato Wart Response Plan and work towards implementation in 2024.