In recent years, a number of rural municipalities experienced drought or excessive moisture conditions which impacted crop yields and resulted in municipalities declaring agricultural disasters across Alberta. These events presented an opportunity to explore the development of a tool that AAMDC members could use to help guide decision making in future instances of agricultural disasters. The AAMDC has worked with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry and the Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) to develop a Draft Municipal Agriculture Disaster Declaration Guide (attached).
The draft guide is intended to promote a consistent mechanism for data collection and monitoring to support municipal decision making and to guide the communications process when considering agricultural disaster declarations. Through the use of information provided in the draft guide, municipalities can bring awareness to a situation as it is developing and ensure all levels of government and local residents are aware of the situation, without immediately declaring it as a “disaster.”
The draft guide includes the following components:
- A condition statement tool
- Technical information that can be used to support data
- What a Government of Alberta declaration means
- An overview of municipal communication process in the event a disaster is declared
- Municipal agriculture disaster declaration template
The AAMDC is distributing this guide in its draft form recognizing that improvements to this document and tools included could be made. AAMDC members are encouraged to utilize this guide throughout the growing season and harvest and provide any input regarding its use or content to AAMDC Policy Analyst Tasha Blumenthal at tasha@aamdc.com. Any input is appreciated and feedback will be consolidated for improvements to the guide.
Enquiries may be directed to:
| Tasha Blumenthal Policy Analyst 780.955.4094 |
Kim Heyman Director of Advocacy & Communications 780.955.4079 |