My name is Chris van den Heuvel. I'm a third-generation dairy farmer from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
Thank you very much for inviting me to speak before you here today. I appreciate the opportunity.
During my time in the industry, I've had the opportunity to sit on many different industry boards for farming organizations. I'm currently the president of our local federation of agriculture, director for the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture, and I also sit on the Canadian Federation of Agriculture executive board.
In these varied roles, I've experienced personally the impacts of mental health on our industry from different perspectives. From a national perspective, there's been research conducted and presentations made, which I'm sure you've heard about, on the mental health of our farmers across Canada. According to research done by Dr. Andria Jones-Bitton, we have a problem. This research from the University of Guelph indicates that many farmers are struggling in terms of mental health and are unable to access the resources needed for various reasons.
The numbers are truly of concern. The Guelph research says that 35% of farmers meet the clinical criteria for depression; 45% are classified as having high stress, and a staggering 58% of farmers suffer from high anxiety. These numbers are far, far higher than the general population, and there are many reasons for this.
We experience many of the same pressures faced by small and medium-sized businesses, such as price fluctuations for inputs, uncertain trade environments and competition with imported goods. Business owners have a lot to deal with. When there were proposed changes for taxing private corporations in 2017, we learned that many other small and medium-sized businesses face business succession challenges just as much as we do. Not knowing if you will be passing on your farm to the next generation after decades of hard work working the land is truly heartbreaking.
On top of the usual small and medium-sized business challenges, we as farmers face our own set of unique challenges in agriculture that are beyond our control. Extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods, are on the rise and they put our crops at risk. In addition to that, pests and disease outbreaks can pose dire threats to the industry.
Farms are family businesses. We work where we live and we live where we work, which makes it hard to get away from our stresses. Lost in the mental health discussion a lot of times is the effects that mental health issues and stress have on the family, the spouses and children of farmers who literally live and breathe in the same environment where the stress can be so high.
While one of the benefits of farming is being able to work beside your family, we tend to miss a lot of family events because when the farm calls, we must answer. We subscribe literally to the saying that is thrown around so often: Make hay while the sun shines. Being forced to miss family events can have a detrimental effect on family relations and cause increased stress levels.
Provincially, we have faced some challenges over the past few years in Nova Scotia. Most recently, as I'm sure you've heard, we had a severe late frost this past June. This late frost has impacted many crops across Nova Scotia, with the most damage being done on wild blueberries, apples, Christmas trees and grapes. The financial loss associated with this frost is still incalculable in terms of dollars, but the stress that the loss because of frost put on our farmers is far more than the loss of sales.
We've heard from farmers who were concerned about losing their future market share. Others are concerned about damage done to future crops and extensive damage to plants, while other farmers are wondering how they're going to have cash flow to start next year's crop.
With all of these issues weighing on the minds of farmers after one event, it is no wonder that farmers' mental health is of concern, when you pile multiple events on top of one another.
In some cases, political shifts can cause unintended stress on farmers. Government programs are at risk of being changed when a government changes due to political differences. For example, many farmers rely on the seasonal agricultural worker program to help with cropping, and this program has recently been undergoing some administrative changes. This is challenging due to the inconsistency of the application process and requirements year over year and because farmers don't know who is going to harvest their crop in the event their application is further delayed.
In Nova Scotia, we're mindful of mental health concerns facing our industry, and we have taken a lead on addressing farmers' mental health in our province. Farm Safety Nova Scotia coordinates key tools like the Farm Family Support Center, which is there for farmers to access in challenging times.
Farm Safety was also a co-host for an international farm safety conference that held a panel on mental health and a separate session on responding to farmers under stress, which opened as a post-conference event. To expand on that, the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture is partnering with Farm Safety Nova Scotia to bring Dr. Jones-Bitton to discuss mental health with our members at our upcoming annual general meeting.
We recognize the importance of having support and resources available and our recommendation on supporting farmers is twofold. The first is a national approach to developing a program, which is specific for farmers and industry stakeholders that is practical, useful and relatable. The second is provincial support networks. In Nova Scotia, it would be Farm Safety Nova Scotia. They are best able to deliver these nationally developed programs through their farming communities.
Going forward we need to lift the stigma around mental health and support our neighbours. While we can lump stresses into many categories, farmers face their individual challenges as well.
I'll put my notes aside and just talk about events that I've experienced personally.
I'll talk about one. My first cousin, Joe, grew up on the family farm. He raised hogs and grew hay. He had an off-farm job as a welder and was very well-respected in the community. We didn't know that he struggled with mental health issues. Two years ago, we buried him. My uncle found him on an abandoned road with a shotgun on the seat of the truck beside him. That was the last visual my uncle had of my cousin. We need help.
Thank you.