Question Period Note: Environmental Resilience

What is the Government of Canada doing to enhance the environmental resilience of the sector, including adapting to the impacts of climate change?

RESPONSE:

1. The Government of Canada recognizes the vital importance of a resilient agriculture and agri-food sector that is able to adapt to climate change, grow sustainably, and continue to feed Canada and a growing global population.

2. The Canadian Agricultural Partnership provides up to $438 million in cost-shared funding with the provinces and territories to help producers address soil and water conservation, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and adapt to climate change.

3. Federal, provincial and territorial ministers of agriculture have reached an agreement in principle for the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, a five-year agreement that will build on our current programming, including tackling climate change and environmental protection in order to support Canada as a world leader in sustainable agriculture and agri-food production.

4. The $250 million cost-shared Resilient Agricultural Landscape Program, being developed with provinces and territories, will help farmers implement practices that maintain and enhance the natural ability of agriculture lands to sequester carbon, as well as protect biodiversity and soil health.

5. We are also developing a Green Agricultural Plan for Canada to coordinate and support current and further action on climate change and other environmental priorities.

RESPONSIVE ON SUPPORTING PRODUCERS IMPACTED BY ADVERSE WEATHER:
1. We recognize that Canadian farmers are on the front lines of climate change and are making important contributions to adapt to a changing climate. We continue to work with them to protect our environment while keeping farm businesses strong.

1. We also support and conduct science and on-farm programming to help the sector prepare for, respond to, and recover from climate-related risks like extreme weather. This includes developing more climate resilient crop varieties and on-farm technologies to improve water use efficiency, as well as business risk management programs, which provide direct support to producers facing losses from climate and environmental challenges.

2. Additionally, in July, 2022, my provincial and territorial counterparts and I announced significant improvements to business risk management programs, including conducting a one-year review on how to integrate climate risk and readiness, increasing the AgriStability compensation rate to 80 percent, AgriInsurance pilot initiatives to support producers’ efforts to reduce climate-related production losses, and adopting beneficial management practices.

RESPONSIVE ON ENHANCING SUSTAINABLE WATER MANAGEMENT:
1. We will help the agriculture sector enhance the stewardship of our water resources, including through the establishment of a new Canada Water Agency this year and implementation of a Freshwater Action Plan.

1. The Government’s continued leadership on agricultural science, programming, and collaboration, supported by the Canadian Agricultural Partnership and the upcoming Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership is critical to protecting water resources and enhancing the resilience of the sector to climate change.

RESPONSIVE ON SUPPORTING THE SECTOR IN ENHANCING BIODIVERSITY:
1. The Government of Canada recognizes the importance of biodiversity to the agriculture sector and to all Canadians, including its role in supporting pollination, enhancing resilience to extreme weather, and providing critical habitat for wildlife species.

1. The Government is supporting Canadian farmers in enhancing biodiversity through funding, including the recently announced Resilient Agricultural Landscape Program, to support implementing on-farm practices that maintain and restore grasslands, wetlands, and other natural areas on agricultural lands. 

BACKGROUND:

The Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Partnership), launched on April 1, 2018, is a five-year $3-billion investment that will strengthen the agriculture, agri-food and agri-based products sector, helping to promote continued innovation, growth and prosperity. This includes $1-billion in federal programs and activities and $2-billion in cost-shared funding programs and activities by federal, provincial, and territorial governments. Within the $2-billion cost-shared programs and activities, an estimated allocation of up to $438-million has been made available to address environmental sustainability and climate change issues.

Up to $690-million is available under the federal-only programs to enhance the competitiveness of the sector through research, science and innovation, with an emphasis on sustainable and clean growth, including the AgriInnovate ($128-million) and AgriScience ($338-million) programs, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)-led foundational science ($224-million).

Federal, provincial, and terrotorial (FPT) Ministers of Agriculture have now reached an agreement for the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (S-CAP) which will cover 2023-2028. This new five-year agreement will inject $500 million in new funds, representing a 25% increase in the cost-shared portion of the partnership. The new frameword builds on the environmental, social and economic considerations outlined in the November 2021 Guelph Statement, where FPT Ministers of Agriculture agreed to a vision for the Next Policy Framework that would see “Canada recognized as a world leader in sustainable agriculture and agri-food production.” This includes tackling climate change and environmental protection to support GHG emission reductions and the long-term vitality of the sector while positioning producers and processors to seize economic opportunities from evolving consumer demands.

Budget 2022 included the announcement of the Resilient Agricultural Landscape Program which is being developed in collaboration with the provinces and territories and will be delivered as a $250 million federal-provincial/territorial cost-shared program under the new S-CAP. This program will help producers conserve and enhance the resiliency of agricultural landscapes by accelerating the adoption of on-farm land use and management practices such as maintaining and restoring grasslands and wetlands; piloting innovative regenerative agriculture practices; and enhancing riparian and on-farm wildlife area, using a payment for ecosystems services approach to support on-farm adoption.

Buget 2022 included additional investments outside of the next policy framework to support the agriculture sector in reducing GHG emissions that also have the potential to produce environmental co-benefits to support climate adaptation, soil health, biodiversity, and water including:
- $470-million to the Agricultural Climate Solutions: On-Farm Climate Action Fundto top-up funding for some current successful applicants, broaden support to additional key climate mitigation practices, extend the program past its current end date of 2023/24, and support adoption of practices that contribute to the fertilizer emissions target and Global Methane Pledge

Adapting To Climate Change

Weather has always been a key factor that producers integrate into their daily and longer-term management decisions. However, climate change is making this challenge even greater, as witnessed by recent events during the 2021 growing season, including impacts from drought, wild fires, extreme heat. Federal, provincial, and territorial governments recognize this challenge and the importance of helping producers avoid – or quickly recover from – the extraordinary costs associated with extreme weather events. Business Risk Management (BRM) programs are designed to respond to the needs of producers, regardless of size or type of operation, ensure producers are making the best decisions for their operations, and are well-placed to continue to repond to any severe climate risks. As part of the S-CAP, Agriculture Ministers agreed to implement new measures to the suite of BRM programs, which will make them more timely, equitable and easy to understand as well as to better protect producers against climate risk.

AAFC supports and conducts research in a variety of areas that enhance sector adaptation and resiliency, including monitoring and improving the health of agricultural soils, developing drought-resilient seed and crop varieties, managing water on the agricultural landscape, and providing producers with the tools to help them better adapt to climate change.
As part of Canada’s Strengthened Climate Plan, Canada is committed to developing a National Adaptation Strategy by December, 2022, led by Environment and Climate Change Canada. The Strategy builds on the commitment adaptation in the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change and will establish a vision for transformational adaptation action, including specific objectives and actions for the agriculture sector, as well as a framework for measuring progress at the national level. AAFC continues to engage with other federal departments, provincial, territorial governments and sector stakeholders to ensure agriculture and food issues are reflected in the Strategy. AAFC also continues to explore opportunities to support adaptation efforts in the sector, including through enhanced programming under the S-CAP, longer term planning (e.g. towards 2050), climate impact assessments, knowledge and information sharing, and the adoption of BMPs that enhance the preparedness and climate resiliency of the sector.
Enhancing Sustainable Water Management
The Minister has a mandate commitment to continue to support the Minister of Environment and Climate Change to establish a Canada Water Agency (CWA) and implement a strengthened Freshwater Action Plan (FWAP), including a historic investment to provide funding to protect and restore large lakes and river systems, starting with the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River System, Lake Simcoe, the Lake Winnipeg Basin, the Fraser River Basin, and the Mackenzie River Basin. As well as to invest in the Experimental Lakes Area in northern Ontario to support international freshwater science and research.
Budget 2022 announced $43.5-million over five years plus $8.7-million in ongoing funding to ECCC to create a new CWA, which will be stood-up in 2022. There was also the announcement of $19.6-million in 2022-2023 to ECCC to sustain the FWAP, with future plans of this initiative to be communicated at a later date. The FWAP, which sunsets in Fiscal Year 2021-2022, has been one of the federal government’s main programmatic approaches to manage and protect fresh water in Canada through the targeting of transboundary waterbodies of national significance. Specifically, it has funded freshwater ecosystem initiatives in the Great Lakes and Lake Winnipeg and committed to unfunded actions in the St Lawrence, St. John, Fraser and Mackenzie rivers. Further funding was provided through Budget 2016 and 2021 to address water quality threats to Lake of the Woods.
AAFC continue engaged with ECCC, other departments, provincial/territorial agriculture counterparts and interested sector partners in development of mandate, investment and structural options for the CWA and opportunities for collaboration under the FWAP.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is essential to producing food, fuel and fibre, to maintaining other ecosystem services like soil fertility, water conservation, pollination and pest management, and to supporting the ability of species and ecosystems to adapt to changing conditions, including to climate change. Biodiverse agricultural landscapes are more climate resilient and recover more quickly from extreme weather events (e.g., droughts). At the same time, components of agricultural landscapes such as cropland, pastures, grasslands, wetlands, field margins and shelterbelts contribute to biodiversity and provide important wildlife habitat. However, the historical conversion of land for agriculture has contributed to habitat loss and degradation through deforestation, cultivation of grasslands, erosion and diminished soil health, and pollution (e.g., runoff of agricultural inputs into surface and ground waters). This degradation is exacerbated by unsustainable intensification and management of agricultural land (e.g., drainage of wetlands to seed in straight lines).
Cost-shared programs between the federal and provincial/territorial governments under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, an agricultural policy framework running from 2018-2023, as well as the upcoming Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (S-CAP) set to run from 2023-2028, support the adoption of on-farm technologies and practices that can provide co-benefits for biodiversity, including shelterbelts, cover crops, conversion of marginal cropland to grass and treed areas, and restoration and improvement of wetlands and riparian areas. This includes the recently announced $250 million Resilient Agricultural Landscape Program, currently in development in collaboration with the provinces and territories under the S-CAP, and aiming help producers adopt on-farm land use and management practices that support biodiverse agricultural landscapes, such as maintaining and restoring grasslands and wetlands; piloting innovative regenerative agriculture practices; and enhancing riparian and on-farm wildlife areas.
 

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