Agriculture and Agri-Food

Opening remarks

Thank you. Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you for the invitation. I'm here to make a structural argument that Canada's BRM framework has begun to recognize private insurance, most recently through the 2020 AgriStability amendment, but does not yet currently extend the federal risk backstop or premium subsidy to qualified private products, even when they cover risks that the public products do not. The risks that the public programs do not cover are widening, and the next FPT framework is the moment to address it through partnership with provincial Crown corporations, not replacing them. I will close with three recommendations for the committee's consideration. Global Ag Risk Solutions is a Saskatchewan-based crop insurance company. We are fully private, and over 15 years, we have paid nearly half a billion dollars in claims to Canadian producers. We've channelled international reinsurance capital into Canadian agriculture and introduced product innovations in margin coverage, parametric heat coverage and integrating with the Crown corporation's yield coverage. The risk that Canadian producers manage has changed dramatically. Our customer data shows that the…

Opening remarks

Thank you. On behalf of the National Cattle Feeders' Association, we're pleased to share our perspective on business risk management programs in Canada, programs that now must be responsive to profoundly different realities, including changes in geopolitics, global trade, costs, risks and innovation. NCFA is the voice of Canada's cattle feeders. These are beef farmers who bring calves on to their farms and modify their diets from grass to a high-energy feed to propel weight gain, thus using less water and producing less methane over a shorter period of time. Feedlots vary in size, but they remain family operations. They often involve multiple family members and generations. Feedlots provide significant economic benefit to the communities across Canada while making large-scale contributions to food security at home and around the globe. Today we look forward to discussing how BRM programs work for feedlots and to highlighting the profound impact that a catastrophic event, such as a foreign animal disease outbreak or climate event, would have on producers and consumers. Cattle feeding operations are located across Canada, but a large portion of them are concentrated in Alberta,…

Opening remarks

Thanks, Janice. I'm Brad Deleeuw, chair of the National Cattle Feeders' Association. I operate and am a partner in a family feedlot in southern Alberta, near Lethbridge. I started working with this family 15 years ago. Over the years, they have brought me into the family business as a shareholder. We currently grow 4,000 irrigated acres and have a capacity of 30,000 head of cattle. Business risk management programs have assisted our business over the years. Modernization of BRMs can include changes to existing programs, but we must also be open to the possibility of entirely new programs. When modernizing BRM programs, NCFA asked the government to acknowledge that one size did not fit all commodities or all operations within the same commodity. There are gaps in the current suite of BRM programs that work for livestock production. Current programs are not flexible, straightforward, bankable or timely. As well, the approach of global competitors to risk management is changing. NCFA recommends a number of changes: Pilot a whole-farm revenue insurance program. Increase the AgriStability cap from $3 million to $15 million, with reviews of the cap every five years. Make livestock…

Opening remarks

Good afternoon, Chair and members of the committee. My name is Tia Loftsgard, and I am the executive director of the Canada Organic Trade Association, representing 7,500 organic operators across the value chain in a sector valued at $11.8 billion. As we move towards the next policy framework, this is an important opportunity to ensure that the BRM programs better reflect today's production realities and contribute to the long-term resilience of Canada's agriculture and agri-food sector. Reliable production is required for supply chains, as stable pricing and ensuring that buying Canadian is always the best choice for manufacturers and retailers looking to source organic products and ingredients. To bring this into focus, I'd like to introduce Scott Shiels from Grain Millers, who is also a board member of the Canada Organic Trade Association and who can directly speak to what this looks like on the ground and across the supply chain. I'd be happy to answer questions afterwards.

Opening remarks

My name is Scott Shiels. I am the grain procurement manager at Grain Millers Canada, the largest organic oat miller in the world and the largest oat processor in North America. I also serve on the board of COTA. What we are seeing on the ground is quite straightforward. We are losing organic producers and acres, and that is translating directly into lost Canadian opportunity. Across the prairies, farms are exiting organic production. Farmers who have been organic for 20-plus years are walking away. Some are retiring without an organic buyer for their land; others are being forced back into conventional production, and many of those are heartbroken doing it. If we lose a reliable Canadian supply, we need to replace it, often through imports, and that creates instability all the way through, from farmers to processors, manufacturers, retailers and, ultimately, consumers. That weakens our food system and erodes one of the most respected organic sectors in the world. A big part of the issue is how risk is defined. Risk today is not about just yield. It's climate, input costs and market pressures. Organic producers manage risk differently. They rely on longer rotations, soil health…

Opening remarks

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. My name is Katie Fettes, and I am the director of policy and research with Canadian Organic Growers. I'm joined today by Gillian Flies, an organic farmer and director with COG. COG is Canada's oldest organic and regenerative agriculture organization. Since 1975, we've worked with farmers, researchers and partners across the country to support resilient and profitable farming systems. Canada's agriculture sector is operating in an increasingly volatile environment shaped today by climate change impacts, rising input costs, supply chain disruptions, geopolitical instability and difficult generational renewal. For these reasons, we believe resilience should be a core objective guiding the next policy framework and the evolution of business risk management programs. This means we need to shift from predominantly reactive risk management toward balancing with proactive risk reduction that helps farmers become less vulnerable to shocks before they occur and in the future. An intentional focus on strategic supply chains in high-potential sectors can help accelerate agri-food resilience. Using organic agriculture and agri-food is one…

Opening remarks

Thank you, Katie. My name is Gillian Flies. My husband and I own and operate The New Farm Centre, a regenerative organic vegetable and mixed livestock farm in Ontario, which we've also developed into a demonstration, research and education centre. Over the past 20 years, we've built a successful diversified farm business supplying local and regional markets. On our farm, resilience means reducing dependence on expensive external inputs, building soil health and creating strong local economies and knowledge exchange networks. In August 2023, we experienced three major storms in one month on our farm, including one rain event with over three inches in under 30 minutes, but because of our soil health and structure, the water soaked into our fields in under an hour, which allowed us to harvest our crops while neighbouring fields experienced severe damage or total loss. We're also less exposed to input price shocks because we rely far less on external inputs, including purchased fertilizers and pesticides. Right now, when many farms are facing skyrocketing input costs and supply challenges, our production costs have remained relatively stable, but achieving this has taken us 20…

Opening remarks

Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members of the committee. I'm here today on behalf of the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, representing a sector that plays a critical role in Canada's food security, export competitiveness and rural economies. Ontario's greenhouse vegetable sector is a major contributor to Canadian agriculture, producing fresh food year-round, supporting thousands of jobs and serving both domestic and export markets. However, Canada's business risk management programs have not kept pace with the realities of modern agriculture. They were designed primarily to address traditional risks, such as yield loss and weather events. Greenhouse production is fundamentally different. Our operations are capital-intensive, year-round, technology-driven and integrated into North American markets that are highly dependent on global inputs and market conditions. As a result, greenhouse growers face significant risks that are not effectively covered under current BRM programs. While the sector has evolved, the risk management system has not. Today's risks are not primarily about crop failure. They're about business disruption. Here are a few examples that highlight the…