Question Period Note: EXTREME WEATHER

Q1 What is AAFC doing to support farmers in Western Canada facing extreme conditions in 2023 and possibly 2024? Q2 What is the government doing to prepare the sector for increased extreme weather in the future? Q3 – Is the AgriRecovery framework responding to the current disasters? Q4 – How is the government addressing climate change through business risk management?

R.1 - The suite of business risk management (BRM) programs provides tools to agricultural producers, including protection against production losses, helping them manage risks that threaten the viability of their farms. We continue to work with our provincial and territorial counterparts to look for ways at increasing the effectiveness of these programs.

In 2023, federal and provincial governments announced up to $365 million to support farmers and ranchers in British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan dealing with extraordinary costs due to drought conditions and wildfires. In 2024, federal and provincial governments announced an eligibility area expansion and an extension to the application deadline in Saskatchewan and Alberta to further support livestock farmers impacted by droughts through existing AgriRecovery initiatives.

We stand with producers and ranchers. This support will help them recover and ensure that they have the tools they need to continue to be resilient in the face of natural disasters and extreme weather events. Going forward, the government is ready to continue to support the sector in managing the impacts of extreme weather events through a full range of programs and initiatives. R.2 - The government is engaged in a broad set of actions to support the sector in managing future conditions, including potentially increased instances and severity of extreme weather events.

For example, the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP) is a $3.5 billion investment over five years by federal, provincial and territorial governments focused on key priorities including science and innovation, resiliency, and environment and climate change. The Sustainable CAP is one important way that the government is helping position the sector to better face future challenges.

In addition, we are reviewing the BRM suite to assess its interactions with climate risks and how the sector is addressing them, in consultation with provinces and territories.

As part of the Strategic Plan for Science, increasing the resiliency of agroecosystems is one of four missions for the department. This mission enables outcomes like enhancing the resilience of the sector to a changing climate.

Other initiatives include the Sustainable Agriculture Strategy, which will strengthen collaboration on environment and climate action in the sector. R.3 - Our government was there to support producers during the 2023 drought and wildfires. We worked with provinces to provide a federal contribution of up to $219 million in AgriRecovery support for extraordinary costs farmers and ranchers incurred due to drought conditions and wildfires in British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.

This funding helped them recover and ensured that they had the tools they needed to continue to be resilient in the face of natural disasters and extreme weather events. R.4 - Integrating climate risk management and climate readiness into business risk management programs is a top priority. We are conducting a BRM climate review that is looking at how climate change could impact future BRM payments as well as how BRM programs could encourage climate action.

Starting in 2025, the largest producers will need to have an agri-environmental risk assessment to receive the government contribution in AgriInvest. We are also working with provinces to pilot AgriInsurance premium rebates for producers who adopt practices that have environmental benefits and reduce production risks.

Recent Extreme Weather Events

The 2023 production season was highly impacted by extreme weather events that included drought, wildfires and grasshopper destruction in Western Canada, wildfires and floods in Quebec, and floods in Nova Scotia. This closely followed the 2021 production year, which included one of the worst drought episodes in the last 40 years in Western Canada in addition to the Pacific Northwest floods in British Columbia. In 2022, Atlantic provinces were impacted by Hurricane Fiona.

Following the extreme dry conditions that dominated much of Western Canada in 2023, drought conditions had generally improved since Spring 2024 before worsening somewhat in July. By the end of July 2024, 67% of the country’s agricultural landscape was classified as abnormally dry or in moderate to exceptional drought. Drought conditions continue to be severe and extensive in northern regions of British Columbia. Extreme drought conditions have re-emerged in west-central Alberta.

2023 Drought and Wildfires Responses

On August 18, 2023, the Province of British Columbia declared a Provincial State of Emergency, under the authority of the Emergency Program Act, to support ongoing response and recovery efforts caused by wildfires.

On October 20, 2023 the Government announced $219 million in federal support through the AgriRecovery framework to farmers and ranchers in these areas dealing with extraordinary costs due to drought conditions and wildfires. 

On January 25, 2024, AAFC and Alberta announced updates to the 2023 Canada-Alberta Drought Livestock Assistance initiative, expanding eligibility to 23 new regions and extending the application deadline.

On January 30, 2024, AAFC and Saskatchewan announced updates to Saskatchewan’s 2023 Canada-Saskatchewan Feed Program, expanding eligibility to 10 additional designated Rural Municipalities (RMs) and extending the application deadline. The updates respond to the dry conditions that further impacted livestock producers throughout the later months this past fall. Additional payments to eligible livestock producers were announced on April 8, 2024.

Livestock Tax Deferral

The Livestock Tax Deferral provision allows livestock producers who are forced to sell all or part of their breeding herd due to drought or excess moisture to defer a portion of their income from sales until the following tax year. The income may be at least partially offset by the cost of reacquiring breeding animals, thus reducing the tax burden associated with the original sale. Given the 2023 extreme weather conditions, a list of designated regions in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba was authorized for 2023. This year, the Government of Canada has streamlined the process to identify regions earlier in the growing season and instituted a buffer zone to adjacent regions to capture impacted producers on the edges of affected regions. An early list of regions eligible for the Livestock Tax Deferral in 2024 was announced on June 14, 2024.

AgriRecovery

AgriRecovery is a framework which forms the basis by which federal-provincial-territorial governments can work together when natural disasters occur to assess the impacts and determine whether there is a need for further assistance over and above the existing BRM programs. When the need is demonstrated, an initiative is put in place to provide targeted assistance to help with the extraordinary costs producers incur to recover.

AgriInsurance

The AgriInsurance program helps to stabilize producer income by minimizing the economic effects of production losses caused by severe but uncontrollable natural hazards. It provides support largely to crop producers, averaging over $1 billion per year since 2013, which represents approximately two-thirds of all BRM contributions.

Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership

AAFC and its provincial and territorial counterparts are implementing programming under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP), a five-year, $3.5 billion federal, provincial and territorial (FPT) policy framework, that is the successor to the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.

The Sustainable CAP places a strong emphasis on climate change and the environment, which are critical to the continued prosperity of the sector as well as supporting economic growth and competitiveness. The Sustainable CAP will focus on supporting environmental, economic, and social objectives across all five priority areas, including science, research and innovation, market development and trade, building sector capacity, and resiliency and public trust.

Sustainable Agriculture Strategy

The Sustainable Agriculture Strategy (SAS) is a long-term plan that will help bring together action on priority environment and climate issues in the agriculture sector. The SAS is a shared direction and vision for collective action to improve environmental performance and enhance resilience to climate change in the agriculture sector. The strategy will take action on environmental and climate issues while providing the vital role of responding to growing demands for healthy and affordable food and supporting economic growth.

The main areas that SAS focuses on are the following:

Soil health

Adaptation and resilience

Water

Climate change mitigation

Biodiversity

AAFC’s Strategic Plan for Science

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 agroecosystems.

The Missions are as follows:

Mitigating and adapting to climate change

Increasing the resiliency of agroecosystems

Advancing the circular economy by developing value-added opportunities

Accelerating the digital transformation of agriculture and agri-food

Across Canada, the agriculture sector has been facing significant impacts from extreme weather events, including droughts, wildfires, and hurricanes.

Our government continues to monitor the situation and is ready to support the sector in managing the impacts of these weather events through a full range of programs and initiatives. This includes the suite of business risk management programs, as well as other tools.

In addition, the government is working with provincial and territorial counterparts and industry to support adaptation to extreme weather, climate change mitigation, and overall greater resilience.

Initiatives such as the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, already in place, the Sustainable Agriculture Strategy, currently being developed, and ongoing research and development guided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Strategic Plan for Science are contributing to these efforts.