Agricultural territory at risk, warns the Commissioner for Sustainable Development

(Quebec) The sustainability of Quebec’s agricultural territory is at risk due to the loss of cultivated area, the reduction of better land in favor of land with less potential, the establishment of the next generation of farmers, but also development linked to the energy transition and the housing crisis, warns the Development Commissioner.

“Our work demonstrates that the interventions of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ) are insufficient to ensure the protection and development of agricultural land,” says the Commissioner for Sustainable Development, Janique Lambert, in his report tabled Thursday in the National Assembly.

She adds that the surveillance activities carried out by the Commission for the Protection of the Agricultural Territory of Quebec (CPTAQ) “do not make it possible to effectively protect the agricultural zone”.

However, it is urgent to act, because the pressure on agricultural land will increase for several reasons, she warns:

• Climate changes
• Development linked to the energy transition
• The lack of housing

“These issues could have a considerable impact on the use of agricultural land,” worries M.^me Lambert.

Collective heritage

It is absolutely necessary to protect these lands, underlines M^me Lambert, because “the agricultural territory is a collective heritage” and the agricultural land located there “constitutes a limited and non-renewable resource”. “In fact, this resource is essential to the food autonomy of the population and the development of the biofood sector. It is therefore important to ensure the protection and development of agricultural land, for the benefit of current and future generations,” she emphasizes.

However, these lands are threatened, in particular by “enrichment and the pressures exerted by urban development”, the increase in their land value, as well as other emerging issues, “such as climate change or energy needs”.

According to MAPAQ data, approximately 2.1 million hectares of land in the agricultural zone were cultivated or pastured and 0.3 million hectares were used for maple purposes in 2022. This is therefore a third of the agricultural area which would be under cultivation. Thus, although the territory is vast, Quebec has only 0.24 hectares of cultivated agricultural land per inhabitant while this number is 0.28 for Ontario and 1.52 for all of Canada.

During this time, the MAPAQ “has not put in place a rigorous process to evaluate the effectiveness of its interventions and the effect of those of the actors involved in the protection of the agricultural territory and its development” and it does not hold “no indicator or target makes it possible to measure the performance of the actions implemented”.

The Commissioner deplores that the MAPAQ “little uses its aid programs to encourage beneficiaries to develop the territory, to respond to the issues that threaten the sustainability of the territory and to encourage the establishment of the next generation of farmers”, and that he “makes little use of legislation and has not set up an arable land bank”.

She is not the first to sound the alarm. He points out that others before him have drawn the spotlight on this issue:

• 2008: Report from the Commission on the future of Quebec agriculture and agri-food (Pronovost report)
• 2015: Report from the Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries, Energy and Natural Resources (CAPERN) on the phenomenon of agricultural land grabbing
• 2020: Report on the future of protection of Quebec’s agricultural territory (Jean-Garon Institute)
• 2023: 2023-2027 implementation plan for the National Architecture and Land Use Planning Policy

Incomplete data

Janique Lambert emphasizes that the data that MAPAQ collects on agricultural land is “incomplete”. “They only present information for registered farms. The latter occupy around 50% of the agricultural area,” she underlines.

In addition, the CPTAQ “relies almost exclusively on the denunciations it receives” to carry out surveillance, and does not have many teeth when it is necessary to intervene. “Only a contempt of court judgment rendered by the Superior Court at the end of the process can give rise to possible sanctions in connection with the offenses charged in this order. Moreover, according to the annual reports of the CPTAQ for the last three years,” notes M^me Lambert.

In another chapter of her report, she is also concerned about the deterioration of soil quality, with intensive agriculture and the use of pesticides. She emphasizes that the Institute for Research and Development in Agroenvironment (IRDA) mentions in the conclusions of a study it carried out in 2023 that “at the start of 2020, the soils in more southern regions (Montérégie, Centre-du-Québec) remain more compact or lack ventilation as in 1990.” “These are regions where annual crops are more present and more intensive,” she notes.