Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you all for inviting me to participate in this study.
My name is Ashley Honsberger. I'm the interim executive director for CANZA.
CANZA is a national alliance that brings together producers, commodity associations, food companies, financial institutions, tech experts and researchers to advance practical, scalable solutions that help manage risk, strengthen resilience and support long-term competitiveness.
We appreciate the committee's recognition that Canada's BRM programs must continue to evolve to meet the realities facing producers today. Canadian producers are managing increasing volatility, particularly from extreme weather events, and many current BRM programs were designed primarily to respond to episodic and catastrophic risk. Increasingly, however, producers are also managing longer-term, more systemic challenges associated with climate volatility, soil health and water management. There's growing pressure to strengthen resilience while remaining competitive.
From a Canadian perspective, BRM modernization represents an opportunity to better support proactive risk reduction and long-term resilience across the sector. Supporting producers with tools and approaches that build adaptive capacity can help reduce exposure to future risks while also encouraging long-term competitiveness.
As governments also prepare for future FPT negotiations, we believe that there's an important opportunity to modernize BRM programming in ways that better strengthen resilience, innovation and producer adoption.
Today I would like to highlight three key considerations for the committee.
First, BRM programs should better recognize and support practices that improve long-term farm-level resilience. Healthy soil is not only an environmental asset; it's a strategic Canadian asset tied directly to agricultural productivity, economic resilience, healthy environments, food production capacity and, ultimately, long-term competitiveness.
Canada benefits from some of the most productive farmland in the world. Protecting and strengthening our natural asset base is increasingly important in a global environment shaped by climate volatility and supply chain disruption. Many producers have already started adopting practices that lead to climate adaptive outcomes; however, transition periods to new practices can create uncertainty and financial risk for producers, particularly when margins are already tight. Programs that help producers adopt resilience practices can enable practical producer-led innovation while strengthening long-term viability.
Second, modernization efforts should ensure that BRM programs continue evolving alongside the realities that producers face today. As climate volatility increases, producers are experiencing more frequent and complex disruptions, while governments face growing pressures within these programs designed to respond to those risks. In that context, there's an important opportunity to explore approaches that not only respond after losses occur but also build resilience and reduce risk before events happen.
As approaches to agricultural risk assessment continue to evolve, there's an opportunity for BRM programs to adapt how risk is assessed and managed. This could include approaches that better recognize proactive risk reduction over time while maintaining producer trust and confidence in how information is used, protected and shared. These discussions are also becoming increasingly relevant within broader financial and investment conversations. Initiatives such as Canada's Nature Advantage and work under way on nature-related financial disclosures are helping shape how resilience, natural assets and long-term risk are assessed. Canada can increase ag productivity and resilience by supporting approaches that improve competitiveness, reduce adoption barriers and translate on-farm resilience into economic value.
Third and finally, coordinating actors from across the system is essential to strengthening the effectiveness of risk management across the sector. Improving how risk is measured, managed and reduced over time will require coordination across industry, financial institutions, supply chains and more, and each plays a role in advancing practical solutions that help producers manage risk and build resilience. A key consideration is ensuring that approaches reflect regional differences in production systems and risk exposure. Effective risk management also depends on solutions tailored to local realities.
In this context, improving consistency and clarity on how outcomes are understood can help strengthen the overall effectiveness of risk management. Producers are looking for practical tools that improve competitiveness, strengthen resilience and support long-term viability. Canada can support that goal through modernized risk management and approaches that are collaborative and flexible and reflect on-the-ground farm realities.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to appear today. I do look forward to your questions.