BC Gov News

• The $71 million allocated as AgriRecovery funding is not an estimate of damage from this year’s wildfires and drought. Instead, it has been budgeted to support the most severe possible outcomes.
• Launched in the summer, the B.C. government has partnered with the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association to help farmers and producers affected by drought get hay and feed through the Access to Feed Program.
• To date, 186 B.C. farmers have received more than $7.2 million in support through targeted advance payments from the federal-provincial AgriStability program.
• The Province’s new $20-million Food Security Emergency Planning and Preparedness Fund is supporting the purchase, upgrading and installation of equipment and infrastructure by those who have a direct role in preparing and responding to agricultural emergencies, including farmers, local governments, First Nations, industry associations and other service providers.
• The B.C. government’s new $20-million Agriculture Water Infrastructure Program is helping B.C. farmers adapt to climate change impacts, like increased drought, and grow more food through funding for new and improved water storage and water supply infrastructure.
• A suite of business risk-management programs is also available through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership to support farmers during times of difficulty:
  • AgriStability provides support when producers experience a large income decline.
  • AgriInvest provides cash flow to help producers manage income declines.
  • AgriInsurance provides insurance against natural hazards (weather) to reduce the financial impact of crop production or plant losses.

The 2023 Canada-British Columbia Wildfire and Drought AgriRecovery Initiative will cover extraordinary costs, and the program terms and conditions define the support limits and eligibility, including:

• Individualized support is provided for extraordinary feed costs due to the loss of access to pasture. These payments will be based on a maximum regional assistance limit and confirmed through receipts for purchases of additional feed:
  • up to 70% support for transportation costs to help farmers and ranchers who moved livestock to feed and water through the recovery period;
  • up to 70% support for extraordinary quality feed testing for additionally purchased forage; and
  • in situations where producers downsized their breeding livestock, support of up to $160 per animal is available for extraordinary replacement costs.
• In situations in which producers have been affected by wildfire, the following supports are available:
  • where Crown range or pasture is lost due to wildfire, specific support for alternative grazing requirements;
  • up to $80 per head to re-establish safe winter-feeding facilities and general cleanup; and
  • up to 70% of extraordinary wildfire related costs for:
    • livestock veterinary services;
    • mustering of livestock;
    • mortality of breeding animals;
    • critical irrigation and infrastructure repairs that were not insurable;
    • labour costs to repair private livestock fences; and
    • reseeding and re-establishing tame livestock forage damaged by wildfires.
• Up to 70% of the extraordinary costs are available for B.C. beekeepers and honey producers to replace lost bee colonies, apiaries and equipment.

This announcement is part of a larger disaster response totaling $365 million in federal-provincial cost-shared funding under the AgriRecovery Framework to help farmers and ranchers in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan with extraordinary costs due to this year’s extreme weather conditions.

Producers already have access to a comprehensive suite of business risk management (BRM) programs that are the first line of defence for producers facing disasters. BRM programs include AgriStability, AgriInsurance and AgriInvest. With joint funding from the federal government and provinces, these BRM programs provide protection against different types of income and production losses.

The federal government also announced an initial list of designated regions in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba where livestock tax deferral has been authorized for 2023 due to extreme weather conditions.