Governments Strengthening Ontario’s Food Supply System

Oct 25, 2024

TORONTO – The governments of Canada and Ontario are investing up to $7.5 million to support 365 projects that will help the province’s farmers, food processors, and essential farm-supporting agribusinesses protect their operations against pests and diseases while enhancing operational resilience and strengthening public trust in our food supply system.

The funding through the Biosecurity Enhancement Initiative, combined with cost-shared investments by the sector, is expected to generate up to $31.5 million in total biosecurity enhancements across Ontario’s agri-food sector.

“Keeping our food safe while applying best management practices is vital to ensuring Ontario’s agri-food system continues to thrive,” said Lawrence MacAulay, federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. “These projects will help enhance biosecurity along our supply chains so we can keep feeding Canadians, and the world.”

“Maintaining and strengthening Ontario’s world-class food safety system is the number one priority for this ministry,” said Rob Flack, Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness. “This initiative builds on our government’s consistent record of enhancing the resilience of Ontario’s food supply chains and boosting our standing as a globally trusted producer of agri-food commodities and goods.”

Under the initiative, farmers, processors, and select farm-supporting agri-food businesses were eligible for cost-share funding ranging from 35 per cent to 50 per cent, depending on the project category. Supported activities include the implementation of technologies that reduce the spread of animal and plant diseases and capital upgrades that enhance biosecurity (such as constructing isolation facilities and wash bays).

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Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.