Today, Premier David Eby announced a provincial election for October 24, 2026, dissolving the Legislature. BC Agriculture Council (BCAC) respects the democratic process and the Premier’s authority to call an election. This is not a statement on the merits of that decision — it is a plain account of what it means for work our sector cannot afford to see stall.
The Premier’s Task Force recommendations are now in limbo
BCAC co-chaired the Premier’s Task Force on Agriculture and Food Economy since it was struck in February 2025. Industry leaders spent over a year building 32 recommendations across water, competitiveness, labour, land, and investment — the product of sustained, good-faith collaboration between government and the people who grow and process this province’s food. Government only just received that roadmap in November. Under caretaker convention, the ministries responsible for acting on it now move into a holding pattern for the duration of the campaign. Implementation of these recommendations — on farm water storage, groundwater licensing backlogs, ALR Farm Classification, labour shortages, and access to capital — does not proceed while government is in caretaker mode, regardless of how urgent the underlying problems are.
Building a case for AgriRecovery also on hold
After a summer of wildfire and drought impacts on B.C. farms and ranches, work was underway to understand the scope of damages from those impacts and explore building the business case for AgriRecovery — the federal-provincial framework that helps producers cover the extraordinary costs of recovering from a natural disaster. That work depends on provincial staff and ministry decision-makers being able to move a request forward to the federal government. A caretaker government does not take on new financial commitments of this kind. Every week this is delayed is a week further from the growing season in which producers need this support to matter.
Why we’re raising this now
These pauses cost. Delay erodes relevance. The Task Force recommendations were built around this year’s growing and investment cycles —the AgriRecovery case is tied to a specific disaster season with its own recovery timeline – and a change in government on October 24 could mean more than delay: new priorities, new ministers, or a new government may choose not to pick this work back up at all. We think our members, and all British Columbians who depend on a stable food supply, deserve to know that.
What BCAC is doing
We will be engaging each of the parties to ask how they will ensure British Columbia’s food system and agriculture production will be secure and sustainable today and for our future generations as food security and affordability still remain one of the top concerns of British Columbians. BCAC is prepared to re-engage immediately with whichever government forms after October 24 — briefing all party representatives on the urgency of our sector’s priorities.
BC Agriculture Council represents over 20,000 farm and ranching businesses across British Columbia.
