Good morning. I'll speak English, if that's okay.
Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today.
I'm here representing Farmers for Climate Solutions as its director of policy and also as a farmer myself. I farm just on the outskirts of Gatineau on the other side of the river.
While the concept of carbon border adjustments—what we call CBAs or BCAs—is still in its early stages in Canada and is not an area we've studied directly, we really welcome this important discussion.
In addition to my opening remarks, I have shared with the clerk a brief that I hope can be considered as part of the study; it has additional background material that can hopefully help you.
Today I want to emphasize three points.
First, carbon border adjustments are increasingly common and are beginning to really shape or influence trade dynamics. CBAs are not just theoretical; they are already being implemented in the EU, and the U.S. is thinking about them, as are many other countries. These adjustments have begun to reshape trade dynamics, as I mentioned, and influence the decisions of our trading partners.
Second, reducing carbon intensity is really crucial, which I think you heard from panellists two days ago. Regardless of the global status of CBAs, it's imperative that we focus on reducing the carbon intensity of our Canadian agri-food sector as soon as possible. While Canadian farmers do really well on some areas in terms of carbon intensity, we really don't do well across the board, which is something we need to fix.
More importantly, a lot of other nations—like the U.S.—are investing far more into reducing emissions and into climate resilience than we are. According to the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, we would need to invest $2 billion per year over the next five years to close that gap. Right now, we appreciate the $1.5 billion that has been implemented for agriculture and climate since 2021, but a lot more is needed.
More importantly, my third point is that we need to support farmers and ranchers to remain competitive in light of climate change. In a recent poll we did with Leger across the country with farmers and ranchers, when we asked them an open-ended question about what the top concern they have for the next 10 years is, the top answer we got back was climate change. Moreover, a large majority of farmers and ranchers—79%—said that they were concerned that it would reduce income. Seventy-six per cent said reduced yields, and 69% said an impact on their mental health or the mental health of their employees.
There's more information about that poll in the brief I shared. There's a clear need to enhance support for farmers and ranchers to help them reduce their carbon intensity while enhancing their farm viability.
The good news for me is that right now we're doing a study looking at the best ways to reduce emissions and also strengthen climate resilience on farms and farm viability. The research is coming out soon, but it turns out that there are 16 best management practices that we looked at, and together those best management practices have the potential of reducing emissions from farms by 16 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent through proven and tested techniques like reduced tillage, enhanced efficiency fertilizers, adding legumes to rotation, cover cropping and rotational grazing. Again, these techniques exist. They're proven, they're cost-effective, and they have a positive impact on farmer incomes and on the environment. Really, they're a win-win for farmers, the environment and the economy.
Whether or not CBAs become a reality around the world, we must prioritize increased funding to support farmers and ranchers to reduce their carbon emissions and improve their competitiveness. There's a strong consensus in the agricultural sector—actually, we heard that yesterday at the CAPI conference—that what we, as farmers, need right now is more economic incentives, knowledge transfer to adopt better climate-resilient practices and data management at the farm level. These investments are critical for supporting our farmers and ranchers in adopting high-resilience, low-emissions practices.
Again, discussions at the sustainable agriculture strategy advisory committee, our national poll and the results of this report all say the same thing.
Let's act now to equip our farmers and ranchers with the resources they need to thrive in a changing climate. Together, we can ensure the sustainable and competitive future of Canadian farms.
Thank you.