Canada’s next federal election has been set for Monday, April 28. One of the major issues in this election, as it seems to have been in many previous, will be housing affordability and availability for both current Canadians and our growing population. All of the candidates for Prime Minister are promising to build more and affordable homes and the infrastructure needed. However there is growing concern among the agricultural sector as to how this will effect available farm land for Canada in the future.

Canada is the world`s second largest country in total area and is the fourth largest country in total land mass but only about 7.5% of that area is suitable for agricultural use. And within that percentage, 4.2 % is only suitable as pastureland, leaving us just 3.2% of Canada’s total land area available to grow food.

While this still represents a substantial area of land given the size of our country, it is now estimated that Canada is currently losing approximately 20,000 hectares of prime farmland to urban expansion each year. This is the equivalent to the loss of 24,500 Canadian football fields (or about 37,400 American football fields) every year in vital farmland. The total reported area of arable land across the country is down 8% in the last two decades dropping from 68 million hectares in 2001 to 62 million in 2021.

It is estimated our country’s population will grow another 5 million (up to 45 million people) over the next ten years. Couple this with climate change causing more and more extreme weather events around the world which will in turn lead to soil erosion and poor conditions that will further impact farmer’s ability to grow crops and raise livestock. Suddenly the future of our overall crop production doesn’t look so bountiful.