 Hello, everyone, and thank you for taking the time to join me today. My name is Lisa Lebeck from the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture and Food, and I'm speaking to you today from Courtney and Vancouver Island on the traditional territories of the Colmox First Nation. My goal for today is to provide a very high-level overview of the various supports that are available to agricultural producers in BC to help you prepare for and respond to drought conditions. So what we'll cover today will start with what we know about drought impacts on the agriculture sector from 2023, go over a number of different kinds of resources that we have available through the ministry to help producers prepare for drought, and then finally talk a little bit about what the Ministry of Agriculture and Foods role is during a drought event. We all know that water is absolutely fundamental to the agriculture sector. It's a critical input for both primary food production as well as for food processing and other downstream uses. And we also know that 2023 was an extremely challenging year for producers across the province, not only because of drought, but because of the compounding effects of other weather anomalies like early frost kills and wildfires. And when we think about these cumulative effects or compounding effects, we're talking about experiencing those multiple stressors within a given year like what we saw in 2023, as well as over the longer term cumulative impacts year over year as we're starting to see back-to-back drought events in some watersheds in BC. So there's considerable regional variation in terms of the impacts that are being felt by producers, you know, depending on the crops that they're growing and the biophysical characteristics of different regions and watersheds across the province. That being said, we know that impacts were widespread last year, regardless of whether water use restrictions that my colleague Ray has just spoken about were in place or not. So crop yields were drastically reduced, and in some cases, entire crops were lost in some areas. This was particularly difficult in areas where dry land crop production and grazing is predominant up in the north, for example. And, you know, in some cases where these forage crops were a component of livestock systems, many producers couldn't grow enough of their own forage to feed their animals, and they needed to source replacement feed, which was harder to find and much more expensive this past year, and not always of the type and quality that's needed to support a particular production system. And then further down the line, this lack of appropriate forage and feed availability led to, in some cases, herds being downsized, and then other examples would be dairy producers that were experiencing reduced yields and quality of milk production, which led to, again, some more increased costs due to penalties. We are also seeing that some producers are starting to see cumulative impacts on perennial crop health, so reduced yields that seem to be semi-permanent and some plant health impacts that seem to be irreversible that are being attributed to previous or multiple years of drought stress in a particular area. Last but certainly not least, producers are stressed. We know that there are a number of negative mental health impacts, and it's starting to really take its toll. Multiple years of drought and other environmental stressors, it's just really starting to take a toll on farmers. And at the end of this presentation, I am going to highlight a number of resources that we have available, specifically to hopefully help a little bit on that front. So how does the ministry help producers prepare for drought? We do this generally in three main ways through a series of information, products and tools to support on farm water management, a number of funding programs that we have available to support improved water management and drought preparedness, and then finally a number of training and engagement opportunities that I'll get into in a little bit of detail. So first, we have a library of general information resources that are available to producers. This is not an exhaustive list, what you're seeing here on the screen, but it hopefully does illustrate the range of resources that we have. So we have fact sheets, we have detailed manuals, we have guidance documents, we have video series, all of which are focused on drought management tips, farm water storage options and irrigation system design and efficiency. The best place to find these resources and more is on our Drought in Agriculture webpage. So you can just go ahead and Google BC Drought in Agriculture and the webpage will most likely be your first hit. Looking forward to the spring and summer, we really want to highlight the most relevant resources and are doing some work to update our website on that front. And we also want to hear from you in terms of what you see there and perhaps what additional resources could be valuable to you as a producer. On this slide, I'm just highlighting the fact that we have more tailored fact sheets and guides aimed specifically towards particular commodity groups. So here I've highlighted what we have available for livestock and forage producers who we know where some of the hardest hit last year, due in part to the water restrictions that Ray has already discussed in the previous presentation on this website. Also noting here that in 2023, we added a number of new fact sheets to this collection, which are starred at the bottom of the list here. Again, these are only some of the resources that we have, we're very much looking forward to hearing from folks in terms of what other resources people would like to see, whether the ones that we have are useful, whether they're being used and especially if people are even aware of them. So contacting your regional agrologists is really the best way to provide that feedback and we'll have some contact information to help you do that at the end of the presentation. So in addition to our written materials, we also have a number of online tools that I'd like to highlight. I'm actually just going to highlight a few of them here. So our weather station network and irrigation scheduling calculator are two tools that work in tandem to help you as a producer fine tune your irrigation schedule. So essentially to make the most of the water resources that you have available on your farm. The weather station network is currently hosted by farmwest.com, as you can see on the slide here, and it provides producers with access to current weather data from over 200 stations across BC, including a variety of federal, provincial, municipal and private weather networks. These aren't the only weather stations that are out there, but rather these 200 stations and our weather network that's hosted or highlighted on farmwest.com is really a curated subset of the weather stations available that are most relevant to the agriculture sector. So in other words, closer or closest to agricultural production areas. And we're looking and working very hard to expand this network even further in the years to come. The irrigation scheduling calculator uses data from the farm from the weather station network. So things like temperature precipitation relative humidity, along with weather forecast information from environment and climate change Canada to calculate evapotranspiration rates for a specific farm. And then it recommends a five day irrigation schedule to optimize water use for that farm. So the ultimate goal here is to encourage using the right amount of water at the right place at the right time. And doing that goes a long way to maximizing water uptake by the crop and minimizing water losses, as well as minimizing nutrient losses due to leaching that can be a result of over watering. And then of course bigger picture, reducing on farm water demand really helps to reduce pressures on streams and aquifers reducing environmental impacts and hopefully potentially prolonging the irrigation window in a particular watershed, especially towards the latter part of the growing season. Next, we'll turn to a few of our key funding programs that are designed to improve on farm water management or support the improvement of on farm water management. There may be some folks listening to this presentation who are familiar with the environmental farm plan program and its cousin the beneficial management practices program. I'm talking about these programs together because they really do work together to help BC farmers plan for and support activities through funding that will improve the environmental sustainability and climate adaptability of their operation. And to try to encourage optimization of water use and water demand on the farm. The EF program is free, it's confidential, and it starts with an on farm consultation with a trained planning advisor who helps producers complete an on farm or a detailed agri environmental risk assessment specific to their farm that identifies actions that can be taken to improve environmental sustainability. And then once that EFP is complete producers become eligible for cost shared BMP funding for a wide range of activities but here we're just focused on water BMP specifically and I've summarized the nature of those BMPs here so the types of things types of activities that you can receive funding for. In order to be eligible eligible you need to be a farm or ranch operation in British Columbia that has completed environmental environmental farm plan and also has valid farm status or an indigenous agricultural operation that has permission to operate on the land. So I'm really happy to announce a few things first of all applications are currently being accepted for some of our planning BMP so a wide range of planning BMPs which do include irrigation system assessments or plans, as well as water management plans, and also engineering or technical designs and assessments on farm related to water and water management. Again, applications are currently being accepted for those two at a cost share of 100% up to a maximum amount and you can visit the website for those details. But I'm also really pleased to announce that very soon in early April, the water BMP category is reopening for applications so the application window opens on April 2. That's the date at which you can start your application. And then the submission window runs from April 15 to April 19, 2024. So that's the period when you can actually submit your application. And then your project does need to be completed within 140 days from the project approval date. There are more details on these programs available on the Investment Agriculture Foundation website, including all of the cost share information for each of these BMPs and maximum eligibility amounts and eligibility criteria. So please do visit the Investment Agriculture Foundation or IAF website and even better suggest that folks subscribe for the IAF newsletter where you'll get the most up to date information in the most timely manner. Because before I leave this slide, I will note that applicants should have appropriate water use licenses in place prior to applying to the BMP program. But for upcoming intakes, IAF is considering issuing conditional approvals to applicants whose license applications are in the review stage. So although it may not be approved yet, that application can remain in the queue with a conditional approval. And that's being considered for this next intake. So please do consult the IAF website or contact IAF for the most up to date information on that front. Next, I'll discuss the agricultural water infrastructure program. So it has a very similar goal to the water BMPs. The program is designed to support enhancements to current water infrastructure or storage so that they can make more efficient use of the water available to them so producers can and or communities more broadly to become more resilient to drought conditions. So the AWI program is open to a much wider range of applicants and what that does is opens the door for larger scale water infrastructure projects. So off-arm projects that might be led by local governments, irrigation districts, conservation groups and others. So AWI funding is also offered on a cost shared basis. Generally speaking, those activities fall into three general categories, agricultural water supply assessments, engineering studies or plants. Just noting that these studies are required often by law before implementing on the ground infrastructure work. And they're also required for eligibility for AWI funding. So again, similar to the BMP program for the AWI program, we do accept conditional or we do have a conditional approval mechanism in place. So as long as an applicant has a license approval or license application in the queue, you can apply for AWI funding, but that license does need to be approved prior to the funding being issued. And we are working very closely with the Ministry of Waterland and Resource Stewardship to secure additional resources to ensure that those license applications related to AWI projects move ahead in a timely manner. The next category here is new or improved water storage systems and dams. And then the third category being off-farm conveyance and water supply systems to farms. So an example of that might be to converting culverts to pipelines or more efficient pipelines. So as I said, a much wider group of organizations and individuals are eligible for the AWI program. And very happy to announce again that this program is reopening to applications in May 2024. There will be some differences with the new iteration of the program. So again, best place to find the most up-to-date information is the Investment Agriculture Foundation website or the newsletter for updates. And there's a QR code there that folks can take a look at. But if you, again, Google Agricultural Water Infrastructure Program BC, the information should pop up there. Another area where our ministry is very active is providing training and engagement opportunities for producers. So we've got some examples here. The drought extension workshops for livestock and forage producers are a series that took place in fall of 2023. And those were specifically designed to assist livestock producers with making business decisions following the 2023 drought season going into the winter. Very detailed information packages and resources are available. So again, contact your regional agrologist to request a copy of those. And we know that there are plans for the 2024 season underway with offerings based on interest and needs of the sector. So stay tuned for those announcements. We also have a series of agricultural water management workshops, which have been taking place for many years. And those are focused on providing practical training and advice that covers irrigation systems, selection, performance, and various considerations for design improvements, all towards helping farmers be more prepared for drought and more efficient in their water management strategies. Several of these workshops have been taking place over the last month or so, and there's more to come this spring. And we do know that there will be more scheduled for either later 2024 or in early 2025. We also have a series of decoding drought management engagement sessions. The material that I'm presenting today is some of the material that's being presented at those sessions. But really, these sessions are designed to open dialogue with communities around drought and to demystify the drought management decisions that are being made under the Water Sustainability Act. My colleague Ray has just spoken in great detail about some of those decisions, and we're trying to get out into community to have these conversations with communities and answer questions as best we can. But with these sessions, we're also focusing on finding collaborative solutions to water management at the watershed level and very much looking to also receive feedback on how we can improve communications at the sector going into this summer. And then finally, we're offering a series of field days this summer to demonstrate and explore water management practices and innovations that are available out there for producers. So stay tuned for all of those announcements on our drought in agriculture website, and you can just again Google that and that information should pop up and there's a link right there to our workshop page where all of the future offerings will be listed. So moving now into the second portion of the presentation, which is how does the Ministry of Agriculture support the sector during a drought. This is the time when the most stress is on you for producers, and we're going to talk a little bit about what we're doing to support you through communication, trying to better understand impacts and informing decisions being made around drought, and then also supporting where we can and identifying collaborative approaches at the community level to drought response. A major role and a major support role that the Ministry plays during a drought is communication. So some of what you see on the slide are things that we already do. But moving forward, we want to do more of all of these things. One of our key goals this year is to really get the right drought information out to producers faster so that they can make informed and timely decisions about their operations. So first we have an Agri Service BCE bulletin. This is currently being issued at the provincial level, with the exception of Vancouver Island where there is already a regional bulletin, and this year we're moving to having regional bulletins for all areas of the province. And then in addition to that we'll be adding a specific water and drought information section this spring. And in that section we're going to be trying to highlight some of the more relevant resources for that particular time of year. And we're going to also try to be including information there around drought levels and potentially what that means for producers. We'll also be getting a lot more active on social media this year. So if you are on Facebook, you can take a look at our Agri Service BC Facebook page. And like that page, there's quite a lot of activity on that page in terms of announcing upcoming events or funding programs or resources available to producers. We are actively putting notices out for all of our workshops here, but we're also wanting to highlight key tools and resources for you. And there are QR codes at the end of this presentation for both the Agri Service BC eBulletin as well as our Facebook page. So please sign up for that mailing list and follow us. Ray has already brought up the BC Drought Information Portal, but I just wanted to highlight it again here because this is really the source of information of the most up to date information on drought conditions and drought levels across the province. We've heard that there is a revamp coming of that portal to make it even more user friendly. So if you haven't had a chance to take a look at that, I suggest you again Google that BC Drought Information Portal and you should be able to find it quite handily. There are a number of other communication roles that we play. We support the Ministry of Waterland and Resource Stewardship in developing their drought related communications for water users. And we are also providing a support role in community meetings that are occurring and we think will occur much more frequently this year in many areas of the province. We also develop and promote, as I've talked about already, a number of drought related information resources and supports. So one example of that during a drought event itself is information packages which we prepared last year to be sent out to individuals that were receiving orders from the Ministry of Waterland and Resource Stewardship, which included things like contact information for local water haulers or links to some of the resources that we've already discussed today. And we are going to continue to do that and try to tailor that information as best we can to the areas where it's needed. We also regularly connect with industry associations to ensure that they are aware of provincial drought response actions and in turn they help us understand how their sector is being impacted and what their members need, which we can then communicate to the decision makers that need to have that information. On the ground, our regional agrologists are also there to support producers impacted by drought. They're often attending community meetings and doing direct outreach. So if you are seeking resources or information, please do feel free to contact your regional agrologist to get that information or be redirected to the resources that you're looking for. So as we heard from Ray in several watersheds across the province in 2023, the Ministry of Waterland and Resource Stewardship had to make some really difficult decisions to implement temporary protection orders to some water users to temporarily stop or cease water diversions to reestablish flow levels for fish in some streams and some watersheds across the province. These are called fish population protection orders, which are a kind of temporary protection order. You might hear the lingo of Section 88 orders under the WSA or the Water Stewardship Sustainability Act. And our team during that process works hard to understand and to estimate impacts that are being felt by the agriculture sector already and that would result from a decision like a temporary protection order so that those impacts can be considered in any walrus decisions that are taking place around whether to issue orders at all. And this year we're going to be switching it up a little bit in terms of representation on the various decision making bodies, but our Ministry's regional staff will be participating in regional technical drought working groups this coming summer to continue conversations and continue to have a two-way dialogue with our colleagues in the Ministry of Waterland and Resource Stewardship and really to provide that strong voice for the agriculture sector's interests in that process. So let's talk a little bit about community-based solutions. These are strategies that we're hoping to promote more widely this summer. We have seen some examples of success in watersheds across the province where community-driven solutions have taken place. And so, for example, in the Coaxila watershed on Vancouver Island, a consultant was hired to help coordinate when community members scheduled their irrigation so that not all producers were irrigating at once. And what that did was it reduced the pressure on the water resource and what we're hearing is that that strategy was very effective in preventing and delaying and in some cases preventing temporary protection orders. So in the case of the Coaxila, it was a delay of approximately four to five weeks. But in other areas, this sort of strategy has been successful in even preventing those orders from being issued by reducing that water demand early in the season. So it may not make sense everywhere, but we are looking to expand this approach in other areas where it does make sense and where there's community support for such an approach. Also, just in recent weeks, we had an expression of interest out, which has now closed. And what we were looking for there was to find individuals that could fill the role of water resource and irrigation consultants. And the role of these individuals will sort of be twofold. One is to act as a community liaison and resource to help coordinate community-level strategies like these coordinated irrigation scheduling type activities. And then their second function will be to get out on farm and provide support to producers to help evaluate water use and water system optimization and identify any potential improvements that could be made. So we're looking to have this position be a real resource for communities and for individuals. And more details on that initiative will be coming out in the coming weeks. So again, stay tuned for that. And the best place to get updates will be through our AgriService eBulletin and Facebook pages. Just once again, recognizing the stress that drought puts on producers and I wanted to highlight some of the supports that are available. AgSafe BC's wellness practitioners are excellent individuals coming from farming backgrounds that provide counseling services at no costs to agricultural producers. So anyone living or working in agriculture can access these resources. And again, links to these are on our website. But if you do Google AgSafe BC, you'll find those resources online. Next is the Do More Agriculture Foundation's peer-to-peer support network called AgTalk. It's a platform that's available 24-7 to those who are 16 or older, but excuse me, live, work, and play in the Canadian agriculture industry. And then finally, there are a number of financial supports that farmers have access to that help to recover losses from drought season. These are offered through our business risk management branch, and those staff are always happy to take calls for information on these programs and really focusing very much moving forward on individual service. So every one situation is unique, and the products are designed to be adaptable to meet those individual needs. So if you do have any questions, we strongly encourage that you contact someone from the BRM program. But overall, the two types of products that are most relevant to individuals facing drought pressures or losses due to drought are our production insurance program and our agri-stability program. And I'm not going to get into much detail on those just now because we do have another presentation posted on the website from our colleagues in the BRM group. And so please do watch that for more specific information about these programs and how they might be able to work for you. So that's the end of the presentation for today. Again, please watch the former video delivered by Ray Riley from the Ministry of Waterland and Resource Stewardship for some details on how the WSA works and decisions that are made under that piece of legislation, as well as the follow-up presentation to this one from our colleagues in the Business Risk Management branch. And just a few resources highlighted here to get in touch with us. The best way, if you don't have your regional agri-logist name and contact information to reach them is to contact Agri-Service BC, which you can do either through email or by phone. And then there are a couple of QR codes here to get you right to the place where you can sign up for the e-bulletin or a Facebook page. And then I have put a link spelled out there at the bottom to our Drought in Agriculture website, but you should just be able to Google that and you should be able to find it quite easily. So please do find out what's happening in your region. Find out what projects will be happening. Let your regional agri-logist know what extension activities or resources you want to see or you want to be involved with. And again, sign up for these information resources that we have available for the most up-to-date information. That's it for today. Have a great day, everyone.