I appreciate it, and I will try not to abuse the generosity of the committee, Mr. Chair.
I just thought I could build on some of Brian's remarks.
The main vehicle that the department, in collaboration with provinces and territories, uses to advance the goals of the pan-Canadian framework is our agricultural policy framework, known as the CAP.
The committee will be aware that since 2003 these policy frameworks have been a vehicle for federal-provincial-territorial co-operation in the agricultural domain. The current framework, known as Growing Forward 2, will expire on March 31, 2018. It will be succeeded by the CAP, the Canadian agricultural partnership.
Mr. Chair, I think members of the committee will be aware that when federal-provincial-territorial ministers of agriculture met in St. John's, Newfoundland this summer, agreement in principle was reached on what's known as a multilateral framework agreement, which is the basis of the framework. We've taken that agreement in principle and have been working over the past several months to operationalize it to give it legal effect and also, underneath the multilateral framework, to negotiate bilateral agreements with each of the provinces and territories.
Federal-provincial-territorial ministers of agriculture have identified environmental sustainability and climate change as one of six CAP priorities. Building on the efforts of past policy frameworks, the Government of Canada, together with provinces and territories, will provide funding to help the sector grow sustainably by reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions; protecting the environment, including soil and water; and adapting to climate change.
Brian shared with you some examples of research that we have conducted within the department and will continue to conduct under CAP to advance those efforts. I'd just like to touch briefly on some of the programs that we have to try to give effect to that research and innovation and transfer some of the knowledge that's generated.
An important element of the CAP is what are known as the business risk management programs, or BRM programs. These are a suite of cost-shared programs that are intended to help farmers deal with risks, market risks or other risks, beyond their control. Under the Growing Forward 2 framework, we anticipate that total expenditures under that program for a five-year period will be in the range of about $6 billion.
I won't talk in detail to each of the programs within that suite, but I would like to just highlight a couple that I think are particularly relevant to the work of this committee with respect to climate change.
There is the AgriInsurance program, which is the largest. It represents about two-thirds of total expenditures under the BRM suite of programs. It's a crop insurance program that's actuarially sound and self-sustainable, meaning that the premiums collected are based on historical farmer losses and, therefore, that the program is well placed to continue to help farmers remain resilient in the face of extreme weather events.
Occasionally when disasters strike, and the sector incurs extraordinary costs to recover, the AgriRecovery framework can be applied to develop specific programming to help producers with these unforeseen extraordinary costs. An example of where this has been done is in Nova Scotia after an unusually heavy, “once in a hundred years” snowfall in the winter of 2014-15. AgriRecovery was used to help maple syrup producers recover from damages suffered during that winter. More recently, an AgriRecovery response is being implemented for damage caused by the wildfires in British Columbia this summer. Support is being made available to help with the extraordinary costs related to feed loss, livestock mortality, farm infrastructure loss, and other damages caused to farmers.
The only other program I'd like to highlight in the BRM suite are the AgriRisk initiatives, which support research development and the implementation of new risk management tools.
In addition to the BRM suite, the CAP will have a series of cost-shared programs that are usually delivered by provinces and territories but financially supported by the federal government. On farm environment cost-shared programs, it will deliver the practices and technologies developed through innovation programming that Brian described earlier. Provinces and territories design and manage delivery of these programs, and this allows programs to be tailored to each jurisdiction's environmental priorities. These programs build producer awareness and knowledge of environmental risks on their farms, and based on these risk assessments, provide financial incentives to producers to adopt innovative, beneficial management practices to reduce these risks, including climate risks.
Canadian producers have adopted technologies and practices that both build resilience to climate change and reduce GHG emissions by improving production efficiency and increasing agricultural soil carbon. In particular, there is a lot of interest in the sector now in precision agricultural technologies, for example, which, among other things, can allow producers to reduce and better target the use of fertilizers and other inputs, and improve the efficiency of their operations while reducing their climate and environmental footprint.
I will briefly discuss some measures that are complementary to the previously described Canadian Agricultural Partnership initiatives, to present the government's objectives to mitigate the effects of climate change on the agricultural sector.
In Budget 2017, an amount of $70 million was allocated over six years to further support agricultural discovery science and innovation, with a focus on addressing emerging priorities such as climate change and soil and water conservation. Budget 2017 also included an amount of $200 million over four years for innovative, clean technologies for Canada's natural resource sectors, including agriculture.
Agriculture-specific funding will address key barriers to the development and adoption of clean technology in the agriculture sector. For instance, the funding will serve to produce advanced materials and bioproducts based on agricultural outputs, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in agricultural operations through improved land management and energy efficiency.
I know that the committee recently conducted a study on A Food Policy for Canada. The department has just completed a consultation process on that policy. The environment is one of the four themes of the food policy for Canada. During consultations, stakeholders across the country raised food waste and its associated greenhouse gas emissions as a priority for A Food Policy for Canada. We estimate that the value of food waste in Canada is approximately $30 billion a year. This represents 3% of greenhouse gas emissions across Canada.
Through the adoption of innovative practices and technologies, the agriculture sector has made important advances in increasing efficiencies, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, conserving soil and water, and building resilience to a changing climate.
The sector is proactively working to meet growing demands to demonstrate sustainability. For example, the Canadian Round Table for Sustainable Beef, the Canadian Round Table for Sustainable Crops and the Dairy Farmers of Canada proAction Initiative, are all working to advance the continuous improvement of the Canadian agricultural value chains, including in areas such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Through CAP and other complementary funding, the federal government, in collaboration with provincial and territorial governments, will support industry efforts to enhance the sustainability of the Canadian agricultural sector.