Premier’s Task Force on Agriculture and Food Economy

• Prioritize a province-wide effort to slow and hold water by building water storage at both on-farm and larger community-scales, including both conventional dugouts, dams and reservoirs, as well as nature-based solutions that slow and store water (such as Beaver Dam Analogues and aquifer recharge) in both WLRS permitting and AF funding programs

• Streamline requirements under the Dam Safety Regulation for lower-risk agricultural and environmental flow dams, dugouts and reservoirs and explore options to streamline permits for water infrastructure projects 

• Develop clearer pathways to securing public and private low interest financing for community-scale agricultural water infrastructure projects (e.g., community and cooperative investment vehicles, infrastructure bonds, public-private partnerships, and federal investment)

• Clear the backlog of existing use groundwater applications that were submitted prior to the 2022 deadline by automatically converting all existing use applications to authorizations without further review. For users that did not submit before the 2022 deadline, government should streamline applications for new groundwater use, with low volume users automatically issued authorizations at a threshold at or higher than domestic users

• Incentivize participation in groundwater licensing. The members recommended that government explore options that would require possession of a water licence for eligibility for government programs (e.g. grants, risk management, farm classification)

• Ensure that farmers and ranchers have a seat at the table in watershed planning. The Task Force emphasized the importance for the agriculture sector to foster stronger relationships with First Nations, local government and other water users, and to participate in governance forums in a way that supports collaboration on creative and enduring solutions to water scarcity. To ensure that planning processes are successful, government should resource community-level watershed planning processes with the right technical capacity and a streamlined toolkit that helps accelerate progress to unlock community-led solutions

• Identify opportunities to proactively set aside water for potential agricultural water infrastructure projects through agricultural water reserves and Water Sustainability Plans, which links watershed planning directly to building water storage

• Develop provincial guidelines that require local governments to play a leadership role in regional planning and infrastructure for agricultural water security and ensuring other development decisions do not adversely impact long-term agricultural water security

• Work in collaboration with industry to review and focus government programs, services and resources on the subsectors, businesses, products, and regional clusters with the greatest potential for growth and long-term competitiveness—guided by sector data and detailed market and competitor intelligence to understand where B.C. businesses are best positioned to compete and ensure strong return on public investment

• Eliminate PST on all agriculture, aquaculture, and food inputs and equipment 

• Remove the motor fuel tax paid by seafood producers

• Implement an investment tax credit that boosts the provincial economy and allows B.C. to become a competitive jurisdiction by incentivizing producers and processors to invest in the equipment, technology and infrastructure needed to grow and modernize 

• Advocate to the Federal Government to continue the Accelerated Investment Incentive for Capital Cost Allowance

• Increase access to funding to de-risk investments, with an emphasis on: accelerating the adoption of new technologies, in collaboration with industry associations, supporting demonstrations to prove return on investment, and providing expert advisory and extension services to enable informed purchasing decisions

The Task Force also identified areas for government to reduce the regulatory burden on producers and processors and increase clarity enhancing sector growth and competitiveness. Due to the cross-cutting nature of regulatory-related challenges, the Task Force will continue to explore these issues in the context of land, labour, and investment this fall, and provide additional recommendations in the months ahead.