QUESTION PERIOD — Agriculture and Agri-Food
Recommendations of Committee
June 19, 2024
Senator Gold, the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry has just presented our report entitled Critical Ground: Why Soil is Essential to Canada’s Economic, Environmental, Human, and Social Health. In the report, we made 25 recommendations, including the appointment of a national soils advocate, the creation of a national soils database and the designation of soil as a national strategic asset. The committee has, of course, asked various government ministers and ministries for a response, which I hope will be received in the fall. However, I wanted to ask if the federal government has any preliminary reaction to this important study led by our esteemed chair, Senator Black?
Thank you for your question. It, indeed, was an important study, and the government thanks the Senate for its work on this important issue, which is not always at the front of mind for Canadians and therein lies one of the added values that our Senate studies can bring by putting issues on the policy agenda that would otherwise be ignored.
The government takes seriously the Senate’s recommendations and is studying them seriously, as they merit, and will issue its response to the recommendations as soon as it has finished its study. I do not have a timeline for that.
Thank you very much. Senator Gold, one of the other recommendations in the report was to create a national permafrost assessment program. Our committee heard really disturbing testimony about the potential release of carbon as permafrost melts. In our Transport and Communications Committee, we also heard testimony about the dangers created for our infrastructure systems as permafrost melts and settles.
Does the government share a pressing concern about the state of permafrost in this country?
The Senate should be assured that the government is very much aware — as many senators are, such as those of us who have travelled to the North, for example — that climate change is affecting the North more than any other part of the earth. That has impacts in all kinds of areas, many of which you have mentioned and many others which you have not. The government takes these very seriously.
