Protecting Canada’s farmland requires a seat at the infrastructure table

Canada is on the cusp of a new era of nation-building. From transportation corridors to energy systems, housing-enabling infrastructure, and, most recently, the Government of Canada’s investments in this country’s food security. These overdue investments are essential to our economic future, but as we build more resilient supply chains and infrastructure, we must take equal care in what we risk losing, particularly when it comes to Canada’s farmland.

Farmland is a finite, irreplaceable national asset and the foundation of our food system. Yet, it continues to disappear at an alarming rate. Since 2001, Canada has lost more than five million hectares of farmland—an area roughly equivalent to the size of Nova Scotia. This loss is most acute in southern Ontario and British Columbia where infrastructure and urban growth pressures are greatest. 

Once farmland is converted or fragmented into parcels that can no longer be farmed viably, it is effectively gone forever. The soil, drainage systems, and local agricultural ecosystems that make these lands productive cannot be recreated elsewhere. 

As global food systems face mounting pressures the Government of Canada has invested in a long-term National Food Security Strategy. Yet, to truly realize these aspirations over the long-term, Canada must protect its farmland.

It is time for a critical shift in how our country plans and approves major infrastructure projects: we must adopt mandatory Agricultural Impact Assessments (AIAs) at the federal level.

Currently, federal impact assessment processes examine environmental effects, but do not consistently require a dedicated analysis of how projects will impact Canada’s food security. Decisions move forward without fully understanding the extent of farmland loss, the fragmentation of farm operations, or the long-term implications for food production; AIAs can change this. 

AIAs are not about stopping development or standing in the way of progress. Rather, they ensure better and informed decisions are being made. With consistent federal leadership, agricultural considerations will not be overlooked in national-scale projects.

Discussions around major infrastructure proposals, including the ALTO high-speed rail corridor between Toronto and Québec City, highlight why this matters. Projects of this scale require large, continuous corridors of land, often cutting through rural communities and some of the most productive agricultural regions in the country. They can introduce permanent barriers, alter drainage patterns, and disrupt farm operations in ways that are difficult or impossible to reverse.

An AIA would have recognized that this project will disrupt agricultural operations, sever farmers from their own land, and disconnect communities from food and agriculture products. Had an AIA been conducted, very different project options could have been proposed. 

Canada needs modern infrastructure, but the scale and permanence of these developments demand a higher standard of analysis of agricultural impacts before decisions are made.

Farmers are not opposed to progress. They are, however, deeply invested in ensuring that progress is sustainable, not just environmentally, but economically and socially. When farmland is lost it affects not only individual farm families, but also entire local economies, supply chains, and the communities that depend on agriculture.

Food security is not an abstract concept; it is tied directly to the land available to grow our food. Protecting that land affects every Canadian and is a matter of national security.

Agricultural Impact Assessments offer a practical, proven way forward. By embedding agriculture into the earliest stages of planning and decision-making, they ensure that projects are designed with a full understanding of their consequences, and with the tools to avoid or mitigate harm wherever possible.

Nation-building and farmland protection are not mutually exclusive goals. With the right frameworks in place, Canada can achieve both.

But governments must act now to ensure that agriculture has a permanent and meaningful seat at the table.

Senator Rob Black is a passionate advocate for agriculture and chaired the Senate Agriculture and Forestry Committee prior to becoming deputy leader of the Canadian Senators Group. He represents Ontario in the Senate of Canada.

Keith Currie is the president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, a farmer-funded, national umbrella organization of provincial general farm organizations and national and interprovincial commodity groups. Through our members we represent approximately 200,000 Canadian farm families from coast to coast to coast.

The Hill Times