Thank you for the opportunity to present before the committee today.
My name is Sukhpaul Bal. I'm a fourth-generation farmer from Kelowna, B.C., and the president of the B.C. Cherry Association.
Farmers understand that risk is part of our business. However, what we've seen in B.C., and specifically in the Okanagan Valley, since 2020 is something different. In 2020, we experienced extensive damage from a polar vortex. In 2021, we were hit with a heat dome that raised temperatures up to 47°C. That same fall in the Fraser Valley, we witnessed the atmospheric river event that was widely displayed on the news across Canada. In 2022, there was a lasting effect from the heat dome of 2021. Buds that were developing on the trees were damaged by the intense heat from the year before. In 2023, a polar vortex greatly damaged the crops and even killed trees. Now, in 2024, yet again, another polar vortex saw temperatures go from 5°C to -30°C in a matter of days.
On a personal note, our farm has lost its entire crop this year due to the freeze event. For those of you keeping count, yes, we are in our fifth consecutive year of dealing with extreme events.
Farmers participate in crop insurance programs, but when they're faced with multiple, consecutive extreme climate events, the current programs fail to meet the necessary levels of support. In light of my first-hand experience with these extreme weather events, I am confident in stating that we are missing a program within the BRM suite to adequately manage risk. We need to make sure that farms remain financially viable when they are faced with these extreme events. AgriRecovery is the current disaster program, but in its current design, it does not address the disaster we are facing.
I would also like to make the committee aware that I sit as a B.C. representative on the national program advisory committee, or NPAC, and I am concerned with the approach that the program branch is taking with climate. To explain it simply, the focus at that level is what farmers can do to improve the climate, as opposed to how we can protect farmers from what is happening in the environment.
Extreme climate is, without a doubt, the biggest threat to horticulture today. The rising costs of production and labour and depressed market prices are all major concerns. However, in my opinion, if we do not help farmers with this extreme climate crisis, farmers will not be around to have to deal with any of those other problems.
Thank you. I'll be happy to take questions, and I look forward to discussing some of the comments that I've made.