 and welcome to today's availability. A reminder to media on the line please press star one to enter the queue you will be limited to one question and one follow-up. With that I will hand it over to Minister of Agriculture Food and Fisheries Lana Popham. Thank you and good afternoon. Greetings from the territories of the Lekwungen speaking peoples of the Esquimalt and the Songhees First Nations. The past few months have been incredibly difficult for people and communities affected by flooding and the landslides in British Columbia. To remind everybody of the impact of this disaster and what it had on farmers at the worst of it there were over 1,100 farms under evacuation order or alert and 15,000 hectares of farmland impacted. Our dairy poultry beef and hog farms experienced serious losses of animals and infrastructure and more than 7,500 tons of field vegetables were lost as well as damages to many other crops including berries grains plants and nurseries. The flooding and landslides resulted in the largest ever agricultural disaster in BC's history and arguably one of the worst years ever for farming in our province. The flooding followed the unprecedented challenges of a multi-year global pandemic and destructive climate change related weather events including wildfires, drought and heat waves. But despite these challenges BC farmers demonstrated a resilience and a commitment to recover that inspired all of us and their spirit demonstrates the need that we have the responsibility that we have to help farmers and our food system recover. The BC government has been working with our federal counterparts and local leaders to help our province build back better and this announcement is part of that. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my federal colleague Minister Beebo for visiting BC and for touring in December and for all the hard work and effort that was required to develop this joint response to help BC farmers in their recovery. From the Sumas Prairie in Abbotsford to Merritt to Princeton as the waters rose losses were incurred and farmers' hearts were broken. We're responding today with a program that delivers the greatest amount of financial support of its kind in BC's history. With 228 million dollars in provincial and federal funding we're helping farmers get their businesses back on track as well as supporting our food security and our food economy. The funding will cover expenses in four main areas that are not covered by existing government programs or private insurance. The first category is returning flood impacted land and buildings to a safe environment for agricultural production. The second is the loss of perennial plants not raised for resale like blueberry plants. Other categories include expenses relating to the repair of uninsurable farm infrastructure and costs for animal welfare such as replacement feed livestock transportation and veterinary care. This program wouldn't have been made possible without the input and support of many BC farmers and farming organizations. We worked with them at each step of the way to make sure this response will work for farmers in combination with our crop insurance and income protection programs they have told us that this will help them get back on track. During our meetings and phone calls myself minister Bebo and many government employees heard from every sector that experienced severe losses developing a comprehensive response that would work for all of them was complicated but together we feel that we have landed in a good place. I'd like to thank from the bottom of my heart all the farmers and associations who contributed ideas and input to this package we really couldn't have done it without you my ministry staff were on the ground throughout this emergency listening to farmers who needed help and doing their very best to deliver it. My staff are still here and they're ready to help with this next step. My ministry will be available to help applicants through this process and we will provide supports in both English and Punjabi making sure all applicants have the attention they need to move things as fast as possible. I'd like to thank all the farmers and food producers for their resilience their dedication and their patience as we just we developed this recovery response. We know how hard it's been on you your families and your communities. When I was reporting out on the flood situation in November and December I was able to share many of your stories with British Columbians. The stories I shared were a glimpse into a world that many knew nothing of and it was a glance into a community that many fell in love with. The caring the sharing and the bravery you showed made all of us extremely proud and British Columbians understand that the best way that they can help is to continue to buy BC. Thank you very much. I'd like to now invite minister Bebo. Thank you Lana and I really want to sincerely thank you. I know how hard you've worked on this and we finally got there. The analysis of all of this was incredible and you were very close to your to your farmers and it was a pleasure working with you and we'll continue to do so. Bonjour à tous. It's a pleasure to be with you today along with Lana of course but also with Jeremy from BC Dairy. Throughout British Columbia and in other parts of the country floods, landslides, wildfires and extreme weather conditions have been affecting the lives and livelihoods of thousands of Canadians. In December minister Popham and I visited with farmers in the Fraser Valley to see the full extent of the damage caused by the floods to their lands, their livestock and their livelihoods. Seeing the devastating losses firsthand was shocking. In our conversations with farmers we heard stories of frustration and anger but even more than that we heard stories about people coming together to help one another. We saw the BC agricultural community demonstrate its strength and determination in the face of these devastating floods. We know the road to recovery will not be easy but our farmers are not walking this road alone. From day one of this disaster we have been working shoulder to shoulder governments and farmers to assess the extent of the damage and to get our farmers the financial support they need to get back on their feet. So today we are announcing that BC farmers who suffered extraordinary damages in last year's devastating floods will have access to up to $228 million of land for the first time in the last 10 years. So today we are announcing that BC farmers who suffered extraordinary damages in last year's devastating floods will have access to up to $228 million of land for the first time in the last 10 years. We will have access to up to $228 million in federal provincial government support to help their farms return to production and support British Columbia's food security and agricultural communities in the years ahead. Aujourd'hui la ministre papa et moi annonçons jusqu'à $228 million en soutien financier à coup partagé entre le gouvernement fédéral et le gouvernement provincial pour que les se retournent sur leurs pieds à la suite de l'inondation historique qui a frappé la Colombie-Britannique. Le programme agrévolance et ceux d'écoulant des accords d'aide financières en cas de catastrophe seront administrés par le gouvernement de la Colombie-Britannique. This program will be delivered by the government of British Columbia by leveraging the federal government's agri-recovery framework and disaster financial assistance arrangements. The federal government has provisioned five billion dollars in 2021-22 for its share of recovery costs under the disaster fund as well as other costs related to the recent extreme weather events in British Columbia. The funding we are announcing today will help farmers with expenses such as cleanup, repair and restoration of lands, barns, trances and other infrastructure, animal welfare including replacement feed and veterinary care and assistance to help restore perennial plants. I also urge producers to sign up for the Agri-Stability Program which can help them cover severe drops in farm income in situations like this. Farmers can sign up late for the 2021 program so they can still take advantage of the income support and producers can now apply for up to 75 percent of their expected payment under Agri-Stability with funds available in a matter of weeks. Insured producers can also make claims under Agri-Insurance which ensures crops against losses due to weather. I urge producers to make full use of all the tools available. That includes resources for mental health. Recently the federal government launched Pocket Well, a new online resource that allows access to free and confidential sessions with mental health professionals from Canadian for Canadians from their phones. This new tool is one of the many ways people across the country can access online mental health resources and track aspects of their mental well-being. Beyond immediate aid to recover from this crisis we will continue to invest to help farmers to strengthen their resilience to climate change. Farmers are on the front lines of climate change. This year farmers have faced not only floods but also wildfires and extreme heat not to mention the ongoing pandemic. Farmers and farmers are the first to suffer the devastating effects of climate change. This year they have suffered not only floods but also forest fires, extreme heat, and climate change. In addition to offering farmers and farmers a direct help to recover from the crisis, we will continue to invest to help them become more resilient face to climate change, without talking about the pandemic that has lost. We will continue to be there for farmers in British Columbia. Last summer, Minister Popham and I announced that payments on the annual recovery of up to 20 million dollars to help farmers affected by drought and wildfires. And our government will continue to invest to help farmers build on the great work they are doing to protect our environment for generations to come. Over the next 10 years, the government of Canada will invest over half a billion dollars to help Canadian farmers adopt sustainable practices and clean technologies. So thank you again Minister Popham for your ongoing collaboration to help support our farmers as they rebuild from the destruction. And to the producers in DC, all Canadians stand with you. Together, we will ensure the agriculture sector bounce back from this crisis stronger than ever. Today is an important first step on that road. And note that we will walk with you every step of the way to help you build back. Thank you. Merci. I think we're ready for questions now. Oh, sorry. We do have Jeremy Dunn from BC Dairy who's also waiting to speak and I'm very grateful he joined us today. Well thank you Minister Popham and Minister Bebo for the opportunity to be here today to express how important these recovery funds are for our dairy farmers. The flooding in November was unlike anything any of us had ever seen before. When the waters receded in December, the mess left behind has been immense. 65 dairy farms were directly affected. That's 65 families displaced from their homes with their businesses interrupted. Our farmers first concern was for their animals and ensuring their care. Second was cleaning up and rebuilding. That work continues today and the announcement of the Canada BC flood recovery program for food security is welcome news. Farmers used to being the ones who help, who provide for others. I know they're thankful for what's being provided, but really want to get cleaned up, rebuilt and back to work. On behalf of our members, I thank both you ministers for your leadership and to the staff within both agriculture and agri-food Canada and the BC Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. Ministry staff have been working tirelessly to support farmers and have also ensured regular updates and dialogue with those of us working directly with farmers through our industry associations. That engagement work has continued through developing this recovery package. I can't thank the ministry staff enough for the time and care and attention they've put on this for the last many months and I know will going forward. Finally, we look forward to working with both you ministers and the staff within your ministry to support our farmers in the weeks and months ahead. We know that recovery will be challenging, but we do know our farmers are committed to helping to feed British Columbians and moving forward. Thank you very much for having me here today and thank you for announcing this package. Thank you, Jeremy. You've been an amazing leader in a time of crisis. Fair to take your questions. A reminder to reporters on the line, please press star one to enter the queue. You'll be limited to one question and one follow-up. Our first question today comes from Justine Hunter, Globe and Mail. Hi, thank you. Minister Papa, can you give me an idea of the total losses to the agriculture sector from the November storm? So farm income, productive assets, what is the overall damage? We have been getting estimates. We've been working with private insurance companies and having assessors out and we believe that it is about 285 million dollars. We have a follow-up, Justine. Yeah, thank you. Can you tell me how much aid has been delivered to farmers so far and how long it will take to actually get that $228 million in aid into the hands of farmers and ranchers? Thank you. Ad hoc programs developed from the beginning of the floods and so there has been money dispersed that way, but we really need to have the portal open, which opened today for this particular program to get more and more substantial money moving. But I might ask Jeremy to comment on the program that was for feed from a dairy perspective. Thank you, Minister. The ministry made available a million dollars for feed suppliers for dairy feed and over that amount for the poultry sector. Those funds are flowing into the sector now. That money was made available immediately. It was critically important to keep the costs of feed ingredients down for our dairy farmers and other farmers that were impacted right away. And thank you, Minister and to your staff for having those funds flow right away. It was critically important in that immediate time of need to have that. Last question goes to Lisa Yuzda, City News. During that and perhaps, Minister Popham, you could talk about this. So for farmers throughout their lives into this, how do they get this money? How do they apply for these things that aren't covered for their insurance? What is the process like and how quickly will it be to as money gets in their pockets? Thank you. So we're making it as easy as we can for farmers to get into the system and get their applications going. Some farmers have applied for a DFA program. We know that there's about, I think, 120 farms that have done that. That information was transferred to my ministry last week and so the folks that have already applied for DFA will be getting calls over the next couple days from my staff. For farmers who have not applied that way, the portal will be open. You can go directly onto it today, giving some basic information and then my staff will work one-on-one with each particular farm to make sure that they're getting the money out as soon as possible. But we know that we've been preparing this for this moment in the ministry. We know farmers need support as quickly as possible and so we actually have over 20 people on standby to start moving those applications now. Lisa, do you have a follow-up? Yes, and I think you told Justine there's 285 million was lost. This is 228 million. What kind of an 1100 farms? I'm just wondering like per farm is there a certain amount they can expect to get? How quickly will this 228 million go out? Is it over a couple of months or is this over a year kind of period? So two questions that I'm putting in there. How long will it take for the 228 million to be dispensed out and sort of what ballpark is each farm looking at that they might receive? So that's a complicated answer but I'm going to give you my best shot. So every farm is going to be treated differently because every farm has its own circumstances and so to be able to give a number on averages per farm we don't have that information yet. But we also know that there are some very desperate situations right now and farmers need cash now and so we're going to be able to give interim payments quickly and get that cash into their pocket so that they can start buying things like electrical supplies etc. I do know that this has been a very trying time and so with that in mind we're looking at the serious cases in front of us and making sure that those checks roll out ASAP. For the next question we go to Grace Kennedy, Fraser Valley Current. Hi yeah thanks so much for taking my questions. The first one I have is one of the the things for this money is to go towards repairing land. So I wanted to see what we know about the contamination of the soil on Seamast Prairie and if there are any plans for governments to get involved with remediation of the soil if that's necessary. Thank you for the question so we have started the assessments on the soils. We do know that there is some instances of contamination and this recovery package will include assistance for that remediation of that soil. Of course as applications start rolling in over the next day or two it'll allow for us to get our staff where needed to be right out on the ground and taking photos, taking samples of the soil that's in question and making sure we get a plan to remediate it in place. The thing is with agriculture is that BC is one of the first provinces to get growing. We have warmer climates here and we have obviously sectors like dairy that are working every month of the year but we have perennial crops that are in the ground that are starting to sprout. I think this warm weather over the last few days is pushing that and so we want to make sure that farmers they know where they're going this year and they know what they need to do and we're going to be with them every step of the way. Grace do you have a follow-up? Thank you yeah because one of the things we've looked at at the current is sort of the American floodway plan and I know Canada is a different beast with the agricultural land reserves and things like that in sumas prairie but do you think maybe the province and the feds should be looking at restricting some sort of building in this area particularly when it comes to livestock farms given the amount of deaths that we saw during those disasters? Thank you for the question. I think that's part of a larger conversation. Farmers are still assessing what they want to do with their futures and so we do have a federal government working group that where we're discussing bigger issues like that but maybe minister Bebo would also like to weigh in on that. It's a it's a it's a conversation that both the federal and provincial government would be thinking about. Well not much to add that your right line up with our working group but our other colleagues were looking at different issues more widely and even at a certain point the the more local government might be also involved in in such thinking about the the occupation of the land. For the next question go to Peter Mitham country life. Good afternoon ministers. I'm sure you're pleased to have this announcement out now. I know you'd plan to have it out by the end of January but a lot of calculations here and so I'm just kind of curious again like the other reporters. The damage to agriculture is apparently pegged at 285 million but I know some estimates preliminary estimates from the dairy sector had put that at between 100 and 500 million for their sector alone and so I'm just looking for a finer number on how the 228 million announced today meshes with the allocations from disaster financial assistance which I think the minister Bebo had said would be drawing on five billion dollars from the federal government and then the crop and income protection programs. How much money are we actually talking about here that are going to support farmers and of course this government support is on top of the private sector fundraising initiatives. Thank you Peter it's nice to hear your voice I hope you're doing well. So the figures that we came up with is we assessed what types of programs were already available between cost sharing federal provincial programs some farmers have private insurance different sectors access different kinds of insurance there as well so we looked at the gap and the number that we came up with was 228 million dollars that would be there to help farmers get back up on their feet but as far as how much agriculture is getting overall in general that's not a question I can answer for you now but I do know that Canadians and British Columbians want to make sure that their food security is protected and they want to know that farmers are they're providing food for them and so we feel very good about the agreement that we came up with for this particular announcement and it's going to take a lot of work for farmers to be able to rebuild but it's also going to take a continued partnership between our two governments and local government to make sure that these farmers are building back in a better way and making sure that Canadians and British Columbians are fed. Peter do you have a follow-up? Sure thanks for the answer and then I guess the other interesting question is what's the geographic reach of the of this program because there was the mention to the agri-recovery program for wildfire and drought but farms beyond the Fraser Valley and Seamus Prairie have been affected by this so is there any what are the criteria for applications and the gain the geographic reaches would farmers up and merit in a long highway be eligible? This this program includes any farmers or agricultural operations that were affected by the the floods or landslides previously we minister Bebo and I announced help for farmers who affected by wildfires in the summer and that's a separate program for the next question we go to Karen Davidson the grower good afternoon this is a question for minister Popham and it is a bit of a follow-up to the question that Grace asked from the Fraser Valley current I'd like to know a little bit more about what is covered in terms of the loss of perennials you talked in some detail about soil remediation but is there a category for rootstock for instance for replacing blueberries that have been lost thank you and so I think you know you're talking about plants that will be used so are you talking about the nursery stock for blueberries? yes okay yes so some of the blueberries will you know they will not have survived the flooding they'll have rootrots likely so does your program on the plank of the you know mitigating the losses of perennials will that include the ability of farmers to buy nursery stock to replace what's been lost? yes it will and in fact there's also a category that will help nurseries recover there's been a lot of loss in the Fraser Valley as far as nurseries that are growing rootstock berry stock etc for farmers there's going to be a lot of demand on those plants as well and so we understand that the support that we give to the horticulture sector the nursery sector will in turn help the farming sector recover and Karen do you have a follow-up and yes and so are these details and the news release that you're about to release? yes there'll be a backgrounder that has all this information and you're very welcome to call into the ministry at any time and we can brief you on the program. we have time for one more question today and we will go to Dave Bedard Glacier Media. hi good afternoon I'm just wondering looking at the line items here for repair and restoration of land and also repair of other insurable infrastructure I'm just wondering if any of these line items also include flood proofing to protect against future future such events I missed the beginning of the question would you mind it seems to be a bit of a muddled connection there could you please clearly repeat your question thank you sure about that I'm just looking at the line items for cleanup and repair as well as restoring infrastructure I'm just wondering if those line items also include flood proofing for against any future such events like this thank you so so the program includes coverage for the materials that would be needed to build back for example a barn but I'm going to allow some input from Jeremy Dunn from BC Dairy here because I think Dairies have been considering this issue themselves well that you know that we have the the the challenge of cleaning up and and getting farms back to production of where they need to be and the the package announced today will be a big part of of doing that there's an incredible amount of work to do the next step I think that everyone is looking forward to both within industry but I know within local government and other others are trying to understand the adaptation that needs to be in place in in our in our farming areas in our in the areas we live with with respect to dealing with weather events extreme weather events and flooding and and I expect that this will be an ongoing conversation for all of us in these positions for for for many weeks to come knowing that that that climate change is is with us now and and and we must act soon do you have a follow-up yes I'm I'm wondering perhaps somebody's already already asked about this in in past press conferences but I'm wondering if there's been any sort of statistical analysis or any sort of analysis really as to sort of the the scale of this particular flood event I mean I'm here and I'm here in Winnipeg for instance we talk a lot about one in 100 year floods one in 500 year floods is anybody anybody sort of to the events that happened back in November from what I it's hard to understand you but I think you're you're asking are we having a greater conversation about flooding and climate change events and absolutely it's top of mind for us we continue to respond to climate related events we've seen just this past 12 months a number of them and so this is something that all governments need to put their minds to local government provincial government and federal government and with agriculture farmers do face these climate related events first and so getting this package out the door allowing them to recover and to be part of that conversation is also top of mind for us thank you very much everyone that concludes today's availability