Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Scott Ross. I am the executive director of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.
The CFA is Canada’s largest general farm organization, representing more than 190,000 farmers and farm families across the country.
Canada’s agricultural sector is operating in a risk environment that has changed fundamentally and continues to change faster than our current BRM tools were designed to handle. Producers today are facing climate volatility, extreme and recurring weather events, geopolitical instability, input cost spikes, animal and plant disease pressures and ongoing market uncertainty. Events that were once viewed as rare or extraordinary are now increasingly routine, yet many of our core BRM programs were built for a different risk profile, grounded in more traditional production and market-based risks without the underlying context of ever-increasing climate volatility.
As a result, we are seeing growing misalignment between the risks producers face and the tools available to manage them. Programs have become increasingly fragmented and understood as stand-alone instruments rather than as a coordinated tool box, which creates gaps, inconsistent incentives and uneven coverage across commodities.
The result at the farm level is declining resilience, tighter margins and rising stress, highlighting that a uniform, one-size-fits-all BRM approach is ill-suited to managing increasingly diverse and evolving risks. Industry’s message is not simply that BRM needs fixing; it’s that BRM must be reimagined as part of a broader Government of Canada approach that cuts across all government departments to leverage the full breadth of programs and incentives available.
Our vision is for agriculture to be treated as a national growth engine, one that strengthens food security, supports innovation and sustainability, creates value across the supply chain and expands domestic and global market opportunities. To do that, we are recommending that the next policy framework support four strategic priorities.
First, it should be designed to support growth across the sector by enabling investment and expansion rather than discouraging it. This will require federal investments focused on high-impact areas supported by policies across government to remove barriers and unlock scale. In other words, we will need to look beyond the borders of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada at how we can support a sector development approach to growth that includes coordinated investment and attention across the Government of Canada.
Second, it needs to drive innovation by improving coordination and investment in new technologies from research to commercialization and adoption.
Third, it needs to support resilience through flexibility by creating more choice in risk management programs, including greater focus on prevention and adaptation versus solely ad hoc responses. Practically speaking, this means exploring innovative approaches and alternative service delivery models to supplement core risk management programs like AgriInsurance and AgriStability with more targeted program offerings.
Canada’s agricultural sector is diverse. A one-size-fits-all BRM approach no longer works for all producers. Some sectors still lack effective insurance tools, including areas like forage and livestock price insurance. Tailored solutions are needed that are better adapted to the unique risk profile of Canada’s diverse commodities.
Finally, the next policy framework needs to be anchored to the goal of efficiency by simplifying programs and embedding accountability to tangible, strategic outcomes. Producers are navigating multiple portals, reporting requirements and program rules across governments. Industry is calling for a single federal portal, streamlined delivery and a shift toward outcome-based performance measurement focused on productivity and competitiveness rather than participation numbers or administrative metrics.
In closing, we believe that the core question for this committee is not whether BRM should cost more or less but whether it is fit for purpose in the risk environment Canadian farmers now face. A modern BRM framework must work with, not against, growth and innovation, reduce reliance on ad hoc crisis responses, provide real choice and flexibility for producers, deliver better value for taxpayers and strengthen resilience across the entire agri-food system.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. We appreciate the committee's attention to this issue and look forward to your questions.