Members of Abbotsford City Council recently returned from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) conference in Edmonton, where they spoke about the importance of domestic food production and encouraged the federal government to prioritize flood mitigation projects in our region.
The annual FCM conference brings together elected officials from coast to coast to network and attend workshops and information sessions. This year’s conference was held from June 4 to 7, with Mayor Siemens and Councillor Les Barkman representing the City of Abbotsford and Councillor Patricia Ross representing the Fraser Valley Regional District.
On the first day of the conference, Mayor Siemens joined agriculture industry members for a panel discussion on the importance of domestic food systems to Canada’s communities and future. The talk covered the role domestic food production plays in supporting economic resilience and community wellbeing, how policymakers and municipal leaders can support and safeguard domestic food production, and ways that municipalities and the Canadian agriculture sector can work together to further strengthen our food system.
Mayor Siemens spoke about the importance of our agriculture sector to our local and provincial economy and food security. He also talked about the need for flood mitigation funding to keep our food producers safe, and he touched on the variety of ways the City of Abbotsford is setup up our agriculture industry for success through partnerships and policies. Some examples include partnering with the Abbotsford Community Foundation to provide annual agricultural enhancement grants to local producers, processors and farmers, and through the launch of AgRefresh to modernize agricultural policies, bylaws and regulations to enable on-farm processing, farm retail and agri-tourism opportunities. Mayor Siemens also took the opportunity to highlight the Vitalus project as the largest investment in Canadian Dairy processing in Canadian history and talked about the 85 million egg processing plant being built by EggSolutions-Vanderpols Inc.
Mayor Siemens also joined representatives from Chilliwack, Hope, Merritt and Princeton to jointly advocate for federal flood mitigation funding as part of the new West Coast Corridor Resiliency Partnership. Our communities are linked because even if we implement flood mitigation solution in one community to stop closure of highway 1 when flooding occurs, goods and services may just be stopped further down the road at the next community if they have not been funded to address flooding. Each of our communities have felt the devastating impacts of flooding, and by coming together we can better amplify our message and improve collaboration, advocacy and information sharing.
Aside form being a valuable opportunity for learning and networking, attending conferences like FCM is also an important advocacy tool. Whether it’s expounding on the importance of having a strong domestic agriculture industry or advocating for flood infrastructure funding to protect that vital industry, FCM provided us with a high-profile platform to reach an influential audience.
Protecting Sumas Prairie from flooding is a project of national importance, and City Council is committed to using every available opportunity to continually emphasize the important of securing meaningful flood mitigation funding for our region.
Abbotsford City Council