Question Period Note: ENVIRONMENTAL RESILIENCE

Q1 – What is the Government of Canada doing to enhance the environmental resilience of the sector, including adapting to the impacts of climate change? Q2 – What is the Government of Canada doing to enhance sustainable water management in the agriculture and agri-food sector? Q3 – What is the Government of Canada doing to protect biodiversity in the agriculture and agri-food sector?

R.1 - Through AAFC, the Government of Canada is supporting the sector in increasing its resiliency in the face of climate-related risks. Cost-shared programs between the federal and provincial/territorial governments under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, help to increase farmers’ awareness and management of on-farm environmental risks and support the adoption of beneficial management practices (BMPs) and technologies to reduce those risks including through adaptation and resilience to climate change.

AAFC supports and conducts science 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 and biodiversity on the agricultural landscape, and providing producers with the tools to help them better adapt to climate change. AAFC’s Agricultural Climate Solutions – Living Labs brings together farmers, scientists and other sector partners to co-develop, test, and monitor BMPs on working farms, including BMPs that enhance climate resiliency. In fact, under AAFC’s Strategic Plan for Science, mitigating and adapting to climate change and increasing the resiliency of agro-ecosystems are core research missions of the department.
In June 2023, the Government of Canada launched Canada’s first National Adaptation Strategy – a whole-of-society approach to reducing climate risks and building climate-resilient communities developed through engagement with provinces, territories, Indigenous partners, and other key partners across Canada. The Strategy includes specific objectives and actions for the agriculture sector, as well as a framework for measuring progress at the national level.
The developing Sustainable Agriculture Strategy will provide a long term approach to ensuring Canada’s agriculture sector is ready and able to recover quickly from extreme events, thrive in a changing climate, and ensure a steady food supply that we all depend on. R.2 - Cost-shared programs between the federal and provincial/territorial governments under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, are critical to protecting water resources and support the adoption of beneficial management practices (BMPs) and technologies, including those focused on protecting water resources and enhancing climate resiliency. AAFC also has a long history of researching, developing and promoting the sustainable management of water resources, including conducting and funding collaborative agricultural research and technology development, and providing timely data and analysis on agroclimatic conditions impacting Canada’s farmers and the agriculture sector through the Canadian Drought Monitor.
As part of the Strategic Plan for Science, AAFC’s vision for the future of research and development, increasing the resiliency of agro-ecosystems is one of four missions. This mission enables outcomes like enhanced and protected soil and water resources. Budget 2022 announced an investment of $43.5-million over five years as well as a $8.7-million in ongoing funding to ECCC to create a new Canada Water Agency, which was established in 2023. There was also the announcement of $19.6-million in 2022-2023 to ECCC to sustain the Freshwater Action Plan. Budget 2023 renews and expands the Freshwater Action Plan, which will support regionally specific measures to further protect Canada’s freshwater reserves across the country. The Plan will continue to improve water quality and respond to the impacts of climate change, including monitoring, assessment, and restoration work. The Canada Water Agency will lead the delivery of major elements of the Freshwater Action Plan. AAFC continues to work with ECCC to identify opportunities to enhance the management of water resources on the agricultural landscape through the Canada Water Agency and enhanced Freshwater Action Plan.
Major investments in fresh water in Canada announced in Budget 2023 include:
• $650M over ten years, starting in 2023-24, to support monitoring, assessment, and restoration work in the Great Lakes, Lake Winnipeg, Lake of the Woods, St. Lawrence River, Fraser River, Saint John River, Mackenzie River, and Lake Simcoe (note that this figure includes the $420M announced by the Prime Minister for the Great Lakes).
• $22.6 million over three years, starting in 2023-24, to support better coordination of efforts to protect fresh water across Canada.
• $85.1 million over five years, starting in 2023-24, and $21 million ongoing thereafter to support the creation of a Canada Water Agency, which will be headquartered in Winnipeg. R.3 - Canadian food producers are responsible and innovative stewards of the land, and are committed to further support and promote sustainable food systems in Canada and abroad. 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.
Under the Strategic Plan for Science, AAFC’s vision for the future of research and development, increasing the resiliency of agro-ecosystems is one of four missions. This mission enables outcomes like enhanced biodiversity to stimulate productivity and resilience, cementing biodiversity as a research priority for the department. Furthermore, AAFC has extensive biological collections, representing the wide genetic diversity of many important food crops and livestock species, where the answers to current and emerging climatic, biotic and abiotic challenges may be found.
Cost-shared programs between the federal and provincial/territorial governments under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership support the adoption of on-farm technologies and land management 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. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) includes 24 targets adopted in Montreal in December 2022 and includes a number of commitments that implicate agriculture. Target 10 from the KMGBF aims to enhance biodiversity and sustainability in the agriculture and agri-food sector through sustainable use of biodiversity and the application of biodiversity friendly practices. Target 7 aims to reduce pollution to levels that are not harmful to biodiversity by reducing excess nutrient loss, reducing overall risk from pesticides and highly hazardous chemicals, and working towards eliminating plastic pollution. The Government of Canada released a Milestone document in December 2023, serving as an interim version framing Canada’s 2030 National Biodiversity Strategy reflecting only existing investments. The 2030 Strategy will chart Canada’s path for implementing the KMGBF, an ambitious path forward for the urgent action needed to halt and reverse biodiversity loss at the global level. The transformative change needed to accomplish this will require a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach built on partnership and collaboration.

The Department supports climate change adaptation and resilience by supporting farmers in developing and implementing farming practices to tackle climate change and by leading on policy solutions to the challenges of climate change in the sector. AAFC collaborates with provinces and territories through five-year, federal-provincial-territorial (FPT) agricultural policy frameworks to support agriculture sector stakeholders in the responsible stewardship of Canada’s agricultural land and environment:
• Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP) – a new five-year (2023-28), $3.5-billion agreement, including $500 million in new funds. This includes delivery of the $250 million federal-provincial-territorial cost-shared Resilient Agricultural Landscape Program to help producers conserve and enhance the resiliency of agricultural landscapes.

Additional investments outside of the new Sustainable CAP to support the agriculture sector in reducing greenhouse gas emissions that also have the potential to produce environmental co-benefits to support climate adaptation, soil health, biodiversity, and water including:
• Agricultural Climate Solutions: On-Farm Climate Action Fund – a $200 million, 3-year fund (2021-2024), with an additional $470 million proposed in Budget 2022 over six years (starting in 2022-23), to support farmers in adopting beneficial management practices in three areas: nitrogen management, cover cropping, and rotational grazing practices. Budget 2023 announced an additional $34.1 million over three years, starting in 2023-24, to support adoption of nitrogen management practices by Eastern Canadian farmers, that will help optimize the use and reduce the need for fertilizer.
• Agricultural Climate Solutions: Living Labs – a $185 million, 10-year program (2021-2031) to establish a strong, Canada-wide network of living labs, bringing together farmers, scientists and other sector partners to co-develop, test, and monitor BMPs on working farms to reduce Canada’s environmental footprint and enhance climate resiliency.
The Government of Canada is developing a Sustainable Agriculture Strategy (SAS) to establish a long-term vision for agri-environmental issues, including climate adaptation and resilience, climate change mitigation, water, biodiversity, and soil health. Consultations for the Strategy launched in December 2022 and ran until March 2023. Following consultations, the Sustainable Agriculture Strategy: What We Heard Report was released in December 2023. The Strategy is expected to be released in 2024.
Higher-risk transformative science under AAFC’s Strategic Plan for Science will help ensure a sustainable, resilient, and profitable agriculture and agri-food sector by 2050. Mission-driven science will bring together multiple disciplines, including economics, social science, and natural science, from across the Department and other science organizations working towards a similar goal, including increasing the resiliency of agro-ecosystems.
The Missions are as follows:
- Mitigating and adapting to climate change
- Increasing the resiliency of agro-ecosystems
- Advancing the circular economy by developing value-added opportunities
- Accelerating the digital transformation of agriculture and agri-food

• The Government 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.

• We 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.

• The Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership includes a commitment among federal, provincial, and territorial governments to tackle climate change and reduce GHG emissions, protect the environment, and support the sustainable growth of the sector.

• We are also developing a Sustainable Agriculture Strategy which will provide a long-term approach to ensuring Canada’s agriculture sector is ready and able to recover quickly from extreme events, thrive in a changing climate, and ensure a steady food supply that we all depend on.