Agriculture & Food platforms
Here's what the candidates in West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, and their parties, are promising.Agricultural business
Liberal
- Make Canada the world's second-largest exporter of agricultural products by 2025.
- Merge existing financial and advisory services into Farm Credit Canada.
- Increase Farm and Food Development Canada's capital lending capability to $5b/year.
Canada Grain Act
Conservative
- Modernize the Canada Grain Act and Canadian Grain Commission, with a focus on consultation with farmers.
- Return $130 million in overcharged user fees from the CGC to farmers.
Diversity of growers
Liberal
NDP
Farmer protections
Liberal
Food waste
NDP
Green farming
Green
- Establish emissions targets.
- Fund research and support for farmers shifting to organic and regenerative farming systems.
- Renew the Environmental Farm Plan Program to help farmers protect wildlife habitat, maintain water quality.
- Improve soil quality.
Establish climate change emission targets for all components of the food system, including nitrogen fertilizer use, livestock production and transportation.
Fund research and extend support for farmers shifting from conventional to organic and regenerative farming systems which work with nature, not against it, to produce food.
Renew the national Environmental Farm Plan Program to help farmers protect wildlife habitat areas and marginal lands, maintain water quality in streams, lakes and aquifers, and retain and improve soil quality, increase carbon sequestration and decrease water requirements.
Restore the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation measures for adaptation to drought conditions.
Restructure Canada’s Business Risk Management Programs to help farmers cope with climate risk, with the focus on disaster assistance.
From Election Platform 2019, retrieved 2019-09-22.
Indigenous food sovereignty
NDP
Locally-grown food
Green
- Invest $2.5m/year into a land and quota trust program and farming apprenticeship programs to expand local small-scale agriculture.
- Set targets for domestic production.
- Rooftop gardens.
- Re-establish infrastructure for local food production.
- Preserve and record existing farmland.
Invest $2.5 million per year into a land and quota trust program and farming apprenticeship programs to expand local small-scale agriculture and help new farmers get started.
Set a target to replace a third of Canada’s food imports with domestic production, increasing regional food self-reliance and returning 15 billion food dollars back into our economy.
Support rooftop and community gardens and urban food production systems to increase access to local food.
Assist in re-establishing the infrastructure for local food production in canneries, slaughterhouses and other value-added food processing.
Protect supply management systems while allowing production for local markets outside this system.
Reinstate the Canada Land Inventory program to provide a comprehensive record of existing and potential agricultural land.
Provide effective fiscal incentives to other levels of government to preserve farmlands under their jurisdictions.
From Election Plan 2019, retrieved 2019-09-22.
NDP
Mental health of growers
NDP
Nutrition North
NDP
Payment protection for growers
NDP
Supply management
Liberal
NDP
An NDP government will make sure that farmers are fully compensated for the losses they have incurred, and will defend Canadian agricultural products like canola from unfair retaliation in overseas markets.
Treatment of farm animals
Green
Adopt animal welfare legislation to prevent inhumane treatment of farm animals including in intensive factory farming operations. This will set minimum standards of treatment and have a timetable for phasing out intensive factory farming and other inhumane animal husbandry practices. It will set standards for distances live animals can be transported, and conditions for animals in slaughterhouses and auctions.
From Election Platform 2019, retrieved 2019-09-22.
Youth nutrition
NDP
New Democrats will partner with provinces, territories, municipalities, and Indigenous communities to work towards a national school nutrition program that will give every child in Canada access to healthy food and the food literacy skills to make healthy choices for life. We'll aim to make culturally-appropriate food available to children in every community in Canada, so that all children can grow and learn.
From A New Deal for People, retrieved 2019-09-22.