Agriculture Committee on April 28th, 2026

[Kristjan Hebert]

In the world of private insurance, most companies wouldn't be large enough to take on all that risk. They sell that reinsurance risk to reinsurers around the world. You get a better reinsurance rate based on your client book claiming less and on spread of risk. If you only have a very concentrated group of farms in southeast Saskatchewan, you're going to pay more reinsurance. If you have farmers all the way across the country—B.C., Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and out east—you can see better reinsurance rates, because the total claim across the whole country will be less than for a specific region.

I think it's a critical piece for the catastrophic risk—the one-in-50, one-in-100, one-in-200 risk—for both the government and the private sector.

[The Chair, Liberal, Michael Coteau]

Thank you very much.

We're going to go to Mr. Connors for five minutes.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Thank you to all the witnesses for coming out, especially to Mr. Fagan for coming up to us to present some thoughts on the BRM programs.

Mr. Fagan, from your experience as president of the cattlemen's association and your experience with the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Agriculture, is there a large participation rate in the BRM suite of programs in Newfoundland and Labrador?

[Nelson Fagan]

I would say no. There aren't a lot of people who would be aware of this whole thing and the finer details of it, to take advantage of it.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Do you think it's cost-prohibitive, or do the programs not suit the smaller farms in Newfoundland and Labrador?

[Nelson Fagan]

Smaller farms, no.... They would have to have capital to put into it first.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Going back to the livestock insurance, you briefly spoke about this. Can you elaborate a little bit more on the challenges you have with the livestock insurance?

[Nelson Fagan]

The livestock insurance challenges, for me, would be that the only thing they cover is the hunter or predator. We have climate change. We had three forest fires in the last two years, right next to my barn. I have farm insurance on my barn. If a fire broke out in my barn, the animals in the barn are covered. To be honest with you, I feel there is a higher probability of losing my animals to a forest fire on one of the community pastures.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Have you investigated any insurance that would cover that? Does the BRM suite of programs cover that?

[Nelson Fagan]

Not through you guys, but privately, I have. I did call one. In 2021, I reached out to an insurance company. I forget their name, but they were in Saskatchewan. I was purchasing a pedigreed Charolais bull and bringing him home. I asked about animal insurance in general, and the only thing they would cover, in my area, was the transport to get him to my farm. After that, I was on my own. They didn't have any programs for me.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

You mentioned the climate change issues and the forest fires. I'll ask a question about the forest fires. If your cattle had been affected by the forest fires last year, that would have wiped your business out.

[Nelson Fagan]

If that happens, I'm done.

In today's markets, a feeder calf now goes for $3,800 at seven or eight months of age. I cannot afford to retain him and feed him for the next eight months and get a carcass out of that in my market. I'd be better off just shipping him. At the same time, the breeding stock is just as much, and then there's the transport to Newfoundland.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

I want to go to the forage issue that was in Newfoundland and Labrador last year—in most of Atlantic Canada, probably, or in all of Canada. AgriRecovery kicked in to allow people to participate after the fact. I don't know if it was in your opening statement or in answer to a previous question. Did you benefit from that, or do you know farmers who benefited from it? What would be the reasons that you never benefited from it?

[Nelson Fagan]

Well, the reason I never benefited from it was that I got the email at four o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon, and I had to have hay sourced, transportation arranged, and the invoice by the end of the day on Friday. When you have no one to go to in order to start sourcing it, three days is not a lot of time to source hay, arrange transportation and have it paid for, so that was one reason.

I am aware of one beef producer in my area who did take advantage of it, and there is another one, I believe, who did also. I have not spoken to him directly, but I heard he did. I don't know everyone, but there are up to two beef people.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Do you think climate change is going to impact your businesses?

[Nelson Fagan]

Absolutely.

I didn't mention.... As you know, I am the chair and vice-chair of two community pastures in my area that we use. I micromanage them with several other beef producers. I've been using one pasture since my childhood, and I now run it. This past July, I walked that pasture in my tennis shoes, and the grass crunched like maple leaves on your lawn in the fall. I've never seen the pasture like that. We thought we were done, that it wasn't going to recuperate. It did come back, although poorly. We've thought about doing different things, but Newfoundland is rocky and hilly. However, we did, this past March, take advantage of doing some frost seeding. We're interested to see where that goes.

We took over these pastures from people who had them for 30 years, and nothing was done with them, so we're trying to build them up. Hopefully things will change. The fertilizer—

[The Chair, Liberal, Michael Coteau]

Thank you. I'm sorry to cut you off.

We'll go to the Bloc for the last two and a half minutes.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Lafontaine, I'd like you to talk more about the insurance program.

Currently, we're talking a 40% premium, a $100,000 deductible and 15% of insurable value. The farmer, then, pays the first 15%. The farmer has to have lost at least $100,000 to access any protection under the program. You pay $18,000 a year to be insured, whether you're paid or not.

Does that system work well for you? What would the ideal system look like?

[Éric Lafontaine]

What's missing is that the system fails to take into account the actual circumstances on the ground. That doesn't happen now. The system relies on weather station data, without factoring in field visits. If the grids for analyzing the weather station data are wrong, the system can't work. At the very least, the system has to allow for field monitoring.

We've seen 10% premiums in the past. Crop insurance payments have been made, which increases premiums. The risk is still there. We know the risks are growing because of climate change, so there has to be a way to protect farmers without making them fork out the first $100,000. We can't move forward like that.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Your farm is north of Dupuy. As the crow flies, how many kilometres away is the closest weather station?

[Éric Lafontaine]

The weather station is right there, on the farm. Weather station data should really reflect—

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

The data aren't reliable.

[Éric Lafontaine]

The data are reliable, but the analysis grids aren't when it comes to yield. It's as simple as that.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

That's very interesting.

You know as well as I do that many farms in Abitibi and Témiscamingue are some 50 kilometres away from the weather station.

I have one last quick question.

Does not having a federal or provincial slaughterhouse in Abitibi‑Témiscamingue affect your business? What impact does it have?

[Éric Lafontaine]

The big problem is animal welfare because of all the transportation required. We talked about local distribution channels and the ability to sell products locally. Now, the animals have to travel 800 kilometres to the slaughterhouse, and then the meat has to be brought back. Today, there's a lot of focus on animal welfare and local distribution channels. It's a real issue.