Agriculture Committee on May 7th, 2024

[Dr. Al Mussell]

Yes, certainly.

We look for opportunities in which agriculture can be a solutions provider. As one of only a few industries that are capable of sequestering carbon, we look at that as an option and look at what options there are to provide incentives for that.

As we get into this, a lot of the discussion has been around mitigation. Climate change mitigation is very important, as is what different industries can provide. I think there is a point at which agriculture is somewhat unique, because agriculture, as some of the other witnesses have mentioned, is extremely sensitive to climate and climate extremes.

When we think about resilience, I think a lot of the resilience in this environment is about adaptation and how we prepare the sector for what it may need to contend with. I think a pretty aggressive research and development agenda would pursue that type of resilience around adaptation and look for opportunities for mitigation within that.

However, it strikes me as pretty clear that adaptation is the most critical and acute need.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Mr. Barlow. Thank you, Mr. Mussell.

Mr. Louis, you have five minutes.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Before I start, I want to share some of my time with Ms. Taylor Roy.

[Leah Taylor Roy, Liberal, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Louis.

I just want to say something to Mr. Stronach, because I failed to say it in my last session.

I just want to thank you. There are numerous people at your stage and age, Mr. Stronach, with your success, who would not be this passionate about the kind of vision that you have for our country. I want to thank you for caring deeply about our environment, future generations and our country. I just want to say that we need more people with vision who see that the way things are is not the way things have to be.

Helen Keller said, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” Thank you for your vision and for what you've done for our country.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

I do want to thank all our witnesses for being here.

Ms. Grossenbacher from the Farmers for Climate Solutions, I'll start with you.

First, I congratulate you on your Outstanding Young Farmer award in Quebec. Obviously, as seen through today's testimony, it's well deserved.

Farmland needs to be preserved, and for that to happen, we need to know how much farmland we have, because once it's gone, it's gone. What impact do data collection practices have on policy options? How important is it to measure our land inventory, our soil surveys of rural Canada, to understand more about the land that we need to protect? What steps can we take to address these data limitations?

[Geneviève Grossenbacher]

Again, I appreciate the question.

Of course, farmland is really important. It's the main resource that we can grow food on, so we absolutely need to protect it more; we're losing it too quickly. For sure, data is key to making sure that we have a repertoire—an inventory—of what we have, to better protect it, and also to better understand climate change. Different soils have different capacities to sequester carbon with time, and understanding what types of practices work on those soils to make sure that we have the best climate adaptation potential is really important, so we do need data strategies, for sure.

The good thing on data.... It's such a big topic, but on data itself, there's a lot of data that we already have in terms of, for instance, knowing what the best practices are that reduce or that help adapt to climate change. We have that kind of data, but it is lacking on farmland. Where is the best farmland? How can we protect it? What are the different soil types, and how can we help them help us better adapt to climate change?

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Would you say that this data exists a bit in silos and that it's difficult to aggregate it?

[Geneviève Grossenbacher]

I would, for sure. We've definitely been working also to make sure that different governments and the government and industry work together hand in hand to better merge that data. With data, then, come all these questions of who accesses data and for what purpose. You know, there are questions for farmers, or farmers are scared that the data will be used against them or that they will not have access to that data. We need to make sure that the data is accessible, but definitely....

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

I thank you.

I have such limited time. I'm going to switch to Dr. Mussell from the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute.

I'll start my questioning with one of the most important resources of all: water. Especially with climate change, water management is more important than ever, so I'd like to ask you about watershed management and about the use of land, forest and water resources in ways that don't harm plants and animals living there.

What role do watersheds play in better understanding and managing our water resources for agriculture?

[Dr. Al Mussell]

You know, throughout many parts of the country, we do have watershed management units. For example, in Ontario, where I live, we have conservation authorities that manage landscapes according to a watershed level. We know that with the warming of the climate, the atmosphere will have a greater capacity to hold moisture and therefore also to release it suddenly, so I think that planning at a watershed level is.... It always was important, and I think it's just all the more important now.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

What resources, research initiatives or projects have you you undertaken to improve water management practices in agriculture specifically?

[Dr. Al Mussell]

We've just come off a project that looks at different aspects of water management in Canada. The most recent piece was on the prospects for irrigation in western Canada.

When we think about water irrigation and conservation, I think that another aspect that we have to bring in here is scarcity. When we're talking about horticulture and about climate change, I think an important element of our mindset needs to be scarcity. We do have global scarcity in farm and food products. Canada is in a fairly fortunate position, but we have to go full circle from sustainability—which includes water management and how we handle soils and so on—around to scarcity, and that's different—

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Dr. Mussell.

I apologize, but we're over time. I try to be generous, but maybe that's my my sin here as your chair.

Mr. Perron, the floor is yours for two minutes.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I would like to apologize to the witnesses for the time that was wasted today.

I unfortunately have other commitments and therefore won't ask any more questions. However, out of respect for the witnesses and the time they've given us, I encourage them to forward to the committee any comments they didn't have time to make.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kody Blois]

Thank you, Mr. Perron. I know Mr. MacGregor has ceded his last two and a half minutes.

On behalf of the committee, let me thank our witnesses here from the second panel. Ms. Grossenbacher, Mr. Stronach and Dr. Mussell, thank you for your contributions to agriculture and for your testimony here today.

Colleagues, we will not be sitting on Thursday. We will be back after the break to study H5N1. It is something we're seeing south of the border, and we want to make sure we have a meeting to ensure that we have proper protocols here in Canada.

That will be our first meeting when we come back on Tuesday, May 21. Thank you so much.

The meeting is adjourned.