B.C. ag minister provides flood recovery update

The government has provided about $53 million in support

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

B.C. farmers are continuing to rebound about one year after flooding in B.C., the province’s agriculture minister said.

Dairy and poultry farms are “back to normal,’ Minister Lana Popham told reporters during an update on Tuesday at an Abbotsford farm, CTV reported.

At the peak of the November 2021 flooding, about 1,100 farms were underwater. Thousands of chickens, cows and hogs died.

To help farmers recover from the disaster, the provincial and federal governments made $228 million available through the Canada-BC Flood Recovery for Food Security Program.

Of that amount, B.C. farmers have received about $53 million.

And more money will be distributed once applications are reviewed, Popham said.

“There are applications that are currently under way, so we’ll be seeing that go up over the next number of months,” she said.

Popham provided the update at Vedderlea Farms, a dairy operation.

The farm experienced flooding and needed to have livestock transferred to other farms.

And with winter approaching, farmers are on high alert about what the weather could bring.

“We’ve already had two of these atmospheric rivers in the last week and a half and it brings back some feelings of PTSD, I can tell you,” Richard Bosma of Vedderlea Farms told reporters.

According to the Farmers’ Almanac, B.C. will experience “brisk temperatures (and) average precipitation” this winter.