Governments announce new initiative to support British Columbia’s agriculture sector impacted by wildfires

From: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

News release

October 4, 2018 – Vancouver, British Columbia – Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Governments remain dedicated to helping the ranchers, farmers and apiarists of British Columbia who have been impacted by the devastating effects of the wildfires throughout the province.

Agriculture Minister, Lawrence MacAulay and British Columbia’s Minister of Agriculture, Lana Popham today announced the 2018 Canada-British Columbia Wildfires Recovery Initiative to help British Columbia’s agriculture sector recover from the impact of wildfires.

This initiative will provide up to $5 million to assist British Columbia’s farmers and ranchers with the extraordinary costs incurred as a result of the 2018 wildfires.

Assistance will include:

  • Costs related to ensuring animal health and safety
  • Feed, shelter and transportation costs for livestock
  • Costs to re-establish perennial crop and pasture production damaged by fire

Quotes

“Our Government is committed to supporting British Columbia’s producers as they work tirelessly to rebuild and return to production following the wildfires. We are offering assistance to help cover some of the extraordinary costs associated with their recovery efforts, and are working closely with the province to ensure producers have the financial resources to get back to business as quickly as possible.”
- Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food

“B.C. ranchers and farmers suffered losses in this summer’s wildfires that could threaten their operations’ viability, but we’re not going to let that happen. The support we’re providing will help them recover and recuperate from those expenses and help them get back into production so that the can do what they love and that’s producing food for British Columbians.”
- Lana Popham, Provincial Minister of Agriculture

Quick facts

  • AgriRecovery is a disaster relief framework that is part of a suite of federal-provincial-territorial (FPT) Business Risk Management (BRM) programs under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership. It is intended to work together with the core BRM programs to help agricultural producers recover from natural disasters.

  • In addition to AgriRecovery, under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, producers have access to assistance through existing Business Risk Management (BRM) programs, which include AgriInsurance, AgriStability and AgriInvest.

  • The 2018 Initiative will provide the same coverage as the governments’ 2017 AgriRecovery initiative.

  • This year’s fires consumed 1,300,000 hectares of land, surpassing last year’s record. However fewer producers were impacted due to the locations of the fires in the province.

Associated links

Contacts

Dave Townsend
Government Communications and Public Engagement
Ministry of Agriculture
250-356-7098
250-889-5945 (cell)

Katie Hawkins
Director of Communications
Office of the Honourable Lawrence MacAulay
613-773-1059
Katie.hawkins@canada.ca

Media Relations
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
613-773-7972
1-866-345-7972
aafc.mediarelations-relationsmedias.aac@canada.ca
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