Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee, for having us here today. We appreciate the time.
As most of you know, I'm Keith Currie, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. I'll be sharing my time today, as you mentioned, with Sukhpaul Bal, who's a farmer in the Okanagan Valley.
The environment within which farmers operate, both figuratively and literally, has changed dramatically over the past several years. An increasing number of extreme weather events are having a direct impact on Canadian producers, and our risk management programs must adapt to this changing risk climate. For example, rather than focusing our disaster relief programming on helping producers recover from the extraordinary costs they must take on to recover from disasters, we should be looking to create risk management programs that are more focused on providing timely support and have a clear focus on mitigating future impacts. That is why, at a high level, the CFA has been advocating for an immediate review of Canada's agricultural disaster framework to ensure that farmers have the support needed to manage extreme weather volatility, while identifying immediate measures that can mitigate and prevent impacts from future such events.
Our horticulture sector carries unique risks and costs that are being further compounded by the impacts of climate change. For example, the current suite of BRM programs was not designed to support the diversity of crops grown in the horticulture sector—some 150 different crops—nor was it designed to compensate producers for the high input costs, the high perishability of many horticulture crops, and the production cycle, which can see multiple different crops grown in a single season.
The terms and conditions of Canada's current suite of risk management programs were negotiated as part of the sustainable Canadian agricultural partnership, which is a $3.5-billion five-year FPT agreement that runs until March 2028. We can't wait another four years for the renewal of this partnership before addressing the gaps in Canada's risk management programs. We have to act now to fill the gap in our risk management framework.
That is why we are calling for a focused engagement with stakeholders and FPT governments to immediately establish a relief program to ensure that family farms receive the critical and timely support they need in times of crisis. If we want producers across Canada to become effective partners in the fight against climate change, we need to ensure that we have their backs when climate-related events destroy their harvest, crops and/or livelihoods.
Thanks for the time. I'll now turn it over to my colleague Sukhpaul.