Question Period Note: AgriRecovery Support for the Horticultural Sector

How can AgriRecovery assist horticultural producers impacted by COVID-19?

FIRST RESPONSE:

1. AgriRecovery can provide assistance to producers who face extraordinary costs as a result of COVID-19 outbreaks or disease control measures.
2. Financial support can reach up to 90 percent of eligible extraordinary costs, up from 70 percent under standard AgriRecovery responses.
3. In collaboration with our provincial counterparts, we ensure that assistance will be made available should producers face significant extraordinary costs.

RESPONSIVE ON ONTARIO DEMAND FOR AGRIRECOVERY SUPPORT TO THE GREENHOUSE SECTOR:

1. In early May, Ontario made a formal request for an assessment of the extraordinary costs experienced by the greenhouse sector from COVID-19.
2. Federal and provincial officials are collaborating, along with industry, to collect and analyze the extraordinary costs to determine whether additional assistance is required beyond the support already provided through existing business risk management programs.
3. Obtaining accurate and the latest information is important to ensure that the AgriRecovery assessment will reflect the sector’s specific challenges. The joint federal-provincial assessment is expected to be completed in August.

BACKGROUND:

AgriRecovery is a federal/provincial/territorial disaster relief framework intended to assist producers in resuming operations after disaster events, and/or to mitigate the impacts of disaster events. Initiatives focus on the extraordinary costs producers must take on to recover from disasters.

The framework facilitates the implementation of individual initiatives to help producers. Governments work together when natural disasters occur to assess the impacts and determine whether there is need for assistance. When there is need, an initiative is put in place to provide targeted assistance to help with the extraordinary costs of recovery. AgriRecovery does not duplicate assistance already available through existing business risk management programs or any other federal or provincial program. AgriRecovery does not provide support for losses in production, markets, quota, or income.

To help producers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, $125 million in federal funding was made available to support the extraordinary costs faced by producers. Financial support can also cover up to
90 percent of eligible costs, up from the 70 percent under standard AgriRecovery responses.

AgriRecovery is cost-shared on a 60:40 basis; however, given the urgency of need as a result of COVID-19, funding can be allocated without requiring provincial contributions, cost-shared on a 60:0 basis. Regardless of the provincial cost share (60:40 or 60:0), the provinces will be responsible for program delivery. In cases where a province does not contribute its 40 percent cost share, the province will be responsible for 100 percent of administrative costs.

Horticultural Sector

COVID-19 outbreaks and disease control measures have resulted in significant costs to horticulture producers. Producers faced additional costs to adhere to local and provincial health orders, and ensuring that all workers maintained appropriate physical distancing. In the case of temporary foreign workers, producers also faced elevated costs associated with self-isolation periods and securing safe transportation to Canada.

On June 1, 2020, the province of British Columbia requested an assessment under the AgriRecovery framework to fully assess the need for additional assistance to help horticulture producers manage the impacts of measures put in place to reduce the spread of COVID-19 among agricultural workers. Ontario also submitted a request for an assessment of on-farm health and safety costs for horticulture producers in that province. As the impacts on producers are similar across Canada, one assessment was completed in consultation with both British Columbia and Ontario.

The joint federal-provincial assessment determined that horticulture producers had the capacity to manage the costs associated with COVID-19 with the help of existing programs, including the assistance for mandatory self-isolation periods and on-farm safety (e.g., the Mandatory Isolation Support Program for Temporary Foreign Workers).

On May 6, 2021, the province of Ontario submitted a new request to examine if the challenges faced by the greenhouse sector could warrant support through an AgriRecovery initiative. The challenges identified by the province consist of the extraordinary costs related to landing and quarantining Temporary Foreign Workers; workplace and housing improvements to protect workers; and other actions to comply with fluid public health requirements. Industry has reported that a number of producers also faced production losses in addition to extraordinary costs.

A joint federal-provincial assessment under the AgriRecovery framework is underway and will allow officials to determine if there is a need for any additional programming to respond to the extraordinary costs the greenhouse sector faced as a result of COVID-19. The assessment will take into account all support programs available to the sector, including support for temporary foreign workers and employers who rely on them, such as the Mandatory Isolation Support for Temporary Foreign Workers Program.

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