Ottawa stopped prioritizing cuts to agricultural emissions: Mark Carney's government replaced the climate focus with productivity and growth, formalized in the Halifax Statement. The previous administration had committed nearly $1.5 billion to cutting emissions.
In Ottawa, the phrase “emission reductions” has become something like Voldemort, the Harry Potter character: it shall not be named. A few years ago, nearly every Agriculture Canada press release included the word “emissions,” whether in strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture or in targets to cut fertilizer emissions 30 per cent by 2030.
“I'm hearing nothing about that (now),” said Brent Preston, a farmer from Creemore, Ontario, and the president of Farmers for Climate Solutions, an organization that advocates for policies to reduce agricultural emissions and programs that help producers become more resilient to climate change. “We were there a couple of weeks ago and had a bunch of meetings up on Parliament Hill. I'm not hearing anything about that (emission reduction targets) in private conversations or in the policies or in public announcements that they're putting out.”
Under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the main priority for Canadian agriculture was cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Prime Minister Mark Carney is pushing policies aimed at improving productivity and economic growth in the sector.
There may be less talk about emissions in Ottawa, but government leaders are very aware that climate change is real and that greenhouse gas reductions are important, said Michael Bourque, president and chief executive officer of Fertilizer Canada. The big difference between Trudeau and Carney, he said, is the acceptance that Canadians, including farmers, live in a competitive world: there must be a balance between economic growth and fighting climate change.
“The trade dispute with the United States has really focused the mind,” Bourque said. “But I also think there are a lot of adults in the room, now … that we didn't have before in the Trudeau government.”
The shift in course became clear this summer, when federal and provincial agriculture ministers issued the Halifax Statement. The document lays out a new vision for the Canadian agricultural policy framework, which will govern from 2028 to 2033. The new priorities are economic growth, trade, innovation and resilience.
That is much different from the 2021 Guelph Statement, when the vision for agriculture was sustainability and greenhouse gas emission reductions. The words in the Guelph statement did have consequences: Ottawa committed nearly $1.5 billion to programs designed to cut emissions from Canadian farms and stipulated that 30 per cent of all agricultural research be directed at climate change.
Many farm groups were unhappy with Trudeau's climate focus. One concern was that it took program dollars and funding away from research that mattered to producers. Another frustration was the argument that farmers could easily reduce their emissions with minimal impact on yields, livestock production or profits. Few producers accepted that idea.
“If all you're doing as a government is pushing environmental policy without being aware of the competitive impacts, you're not being realistic,” Bourque said. “This (new) government … understands the trade-offs.” In a 2024 report, the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute said the idea of achieving net zero emissions in agriculture must account for economic realities. “The narrow profit margins typical in farming make it hard for farmers to invest in technologies or practices that reduce emissions,” it said. “Policy interventions and incentives designed to support these changes must not add financial strain.”
Preston believes farmers can walk and chew gum at the same time — that is, fight climate change and be highly productive — but the messaging from the Trudeau government did not help. “I do think emphasizing emission reductions so strongly wasn't something that resonated with a whole lot of farmers,” he said. “Regardless of what the intentions were of the previous government, they went about it in a very clumsy way.”
While Preston accepts the political realities and the new priorities in Ottawa, that doesn't mean he agrees with all of it. In his view, farmers and all Canadians should be cutting emissions and protecting the environment. “Across the board, not just in agriculture, there's been a complete de-emphasis on reducing GHG emissions,” he said. “I don't think that's a good thing. I think that's short-sighted.”
