The federal government’s Bill C-293, An Act respecting pandemic prevention and preparedness, is currently moving through the Senate, despite the risks it brings to the agriculture and food industry. Alberta’s government is standing with industry members against this highly intrusive legislation that unfairly singles out the agriculture and food industry and encroaches on Section 95 of the Constitution, which sets agriculture within the exclusive jurisdiction of the province.
Under the proposed legislation, public health officials would have the authority during a pandemic to close facilities they consider “high risk,” such as livestock operations and meat processing plants, and even “mandate” the consumption of vegetable proteins by Canadians. Not only would this threaten global food security and the role Alberta and Canada play in feeding the world, but it would also open the door for the federal government to tell Canadians what they can eat.
“Farming is woven into the fabric of our national identity, with modern livestock agriculture playing a vital role. Bill C-293, however, goes so far as to pick winners and losers within the agriculture sector, with potentially wide-reaching, catastrophically damaging regulations and restriction of commercial freedoms for agricultural producers and processors.”
The proposed legislation also introduces several public health mitigation strategies that may not align with local health data and do not adequately reflect specific regional needs. Provinces and territories have exclusive jurisdiction over the planning, organization and management of their health care systems, including response to public health emergencies, and the federal bill would once again enable the federal government to overreach their constitutional jurisdiction.
“Local governing bodies are in the best position to create emergency preparedness plans that suit the unique needs of their province and territory. The federal government should be engaging meaningfully with each jurisdiction on any Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness Plan related to Bill C-293 before being implemented.”
One of the bill’s most alarming aspects is the discretionary power it would grant to officials to shut down agricultural facilities without clear, objective criteria. Such uninformed actions could disrupt not only meat supply chains, but also the wider agricultural operations linked to them, including feed production. This threatens to destabilize related sectors and could trigger cascading effects throughout the entire food system.
Additionally, the bill seeks to regulate and possibly phase out certain farming practices considered high-risk for pandemic propagation. This could abruptly alter farm and ranch operations, significantly affect producers and processors livelihoods, and negatively impact our economic stability.
Key Canadian agricultural organizations representing the province’s agriculture sectors are echoing Alberta’s concerns about this bill.
“Our Alberta family farms are committed to producing safe, high-quality chicken while maintaining the highest standards of biosecurity. We support pandemic preparedness, but Bill C-293 unfairly targets animal agriculture and could threaten the livelihoods of our farm families. We are asking the federal government to ensure this bill is amended so farmers can continue to feed Canadians without facing unnecessary restrictions.”
“Alberta Beef Producers supports the overall objective of pandemic preparedness. However, we are disappointed in the current wording of Bill C-293, as it unfairly singles out animal agriculture, despite the industry’s critical role in food security and rural economies. We urge policymakers to amend the bill to reflect a balanced and fair approach that supports emergency preparedness without unfairly targeting a single sector.”
The legislation purports to examine pandemic preparedness and apply learnings from COVID-19, but it has dangerously imprecise language that is open to drastic interpretations. For example, the bill provides for measures to “regulate commercial activities that can help reduce pandemic risk, including industrial animal agriculture.” The bill also suggests phasing out “commercial activities that disproportionately contribute to pandemic risk,” which puts Alberta’s agriculture industry at risk, in addition to others.
Alberta has sent a letter to Alberta senators and the ministers of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Health Canada to relay concerns with the bill’s content. Minister Sigurdson requested that the bill be amended with more flexible language to avoid unintended consequences.
Canada already has legislation, animal disease surveillance and action plans to ensure farm food safety and biosecurity programs reduce risks associated with zoonotic disease. This new legislation is therefore unnecessary, especially in its current form.
Quick facts
- The bill would require the development of a human pandemic prevention and preparedness plan; however, after consultation with the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and provincial governments, the bill alludes to:
- regulating industrial animal agriculture to reduce any possible contribution to pandemic risk (zoonotic diseases);
- phasing out farming of livestock species that might pose a high risk; and
- promoting alternative protein sources for human consumption.
- The bill also contains measures that would be redundant in noted areas of concern around disease surveillance, regulation of livestock production and antimicrobial resistance.
- Intensive livestock and poultry production carries some risk for zoonotic diseases like influenza in swine or poultry or coronaviruses in swine or cattle, but Canada’s on-farm food safety and biosecurity programs greatly reduce those risks.
- The notion of sacrificing Canadian production levels and exports without assessing the disease risk in a global context, by comparing to livestock markets and production systems in other countries, could result in wide-reaching economic and global food security implications.
- The bill outlines the requirement to form an advisory committee within 90 days after being passed.
- This may provide some ability to influence the course of direction, but it is unclear what power the advisory committee would have.