New federal dollars extend the association's grain, child and women's farm safety programs for two more years
The federal government has committed up to $1,071,532 over two years to the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA), renewing a funding relationship that has backed the Winnipeg-based nonprofit since its founding more than 30 years ago. The investment, announced September 20 in Glenlea, Manitoba through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's (AAFC) AgriCompetitiveness Program, arrives as CASA works to drive down a farm fatality rate that remains stubbornly high among the youngest children on Canadian farms.
"This funding is just a commitment and a renewal from the federal government about the importance of making sure that our farms remain safe and sustainable for Canadians as we go forward," said Robin Anderson, director of programs and communications at CASA.
Why the funding was needed
Anderson said the investment reflects AAFC's role as CASA's longest-standing funder. "We've been really lucky to have Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada on our side as our primary funder since the inception of CASA over 30 years ago," she said. The stakes extend well beyond the farm gate, she added: "When a primary farmer dies, often the farm also fails. But also the fact that these are folks, these are people that grow our food, that work every day to be stewards of the land, and they deserve to be healthy and safe on their farms."
The Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, the five-year, $3.5-billion federal-provincial-territorial agreement running through 2028, channels the new funding. It follows a $1.6-million, three-year commitment to CASA announced in March 2025, underscoring a pattern of renewal rather than a one-time windfall.
Cradle-to-grave programming
CASA describes its approach as cradle to grave, covering every age group from young children to seniors. Anderson pointed to several programs the new funding will sustain, including Kids FarmSafe Week, aimed at caregivers and children; Progressive Agriculture Safety Days held in communities nationwide; and the BeGrainSafe program, built around a travelling trailer that trains firefighters to extract people entrapped in grain. Similar on-the-ground initiatives have taken shape elsewhere, including a new AgSafe Alberta farm safety program built around hazard identification for producers.
Underpinning the work is the Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting program (CAIR), which Anderson called the gold standard for agricultural fatality data worldwide. A network of coroners' offices across the country gathers the data, which the University of Alberta verifies before publication roughly every six to seven years. "That's how we actually developed, why we developed the Kids FarmSafe Week, is because we saw that one to four-year-olds were being run over on farms at an extreme rate," Anderson said.
Persistent risk for young children and women
Anderson said farm fatalities overall have declined, which she called extremely heartening. But the rate among children aged one to four remains the highest of any age group under 60, a trend CASA is trying to shift through messaging on supervision, safe play areas and daycare access. The next CAIR report, expected sometime in 2027, should sharpen that picture further.
The funding will also support a women's hub now in development, following research CASA conducted with Farm Management Canada on the distinct hazards women face. Anderson pointed to the challenge of accessing properly fitted personal protective equipment, an issue that has surfaced across other sectors as well. "A lot of PPE isn't really meant for women's bodies, and we're seeing people using things like rubber bands and duct tape to make them fit better. And of course, that can cause a hazard with entanglements," she said. Women in agriculture also carry what Anderson described as a third shift: farm labour, an off-farm job and primary caregiving responsibilities combined, echoing mental health supports developed for farmers in British Columbia in response to similar pressures.
Looking ahead, Anderson flagged an early signal from unpublished Saskatchewan-specific CAIR data: spray plane crashes have entered the top 10 mechanisms of fatal farm injury. She expects the growing use of drones for crop spraying to reshape that risk, alongside wider AI adoption in planting, harvesting and crop protection. Machinery itself has also gotten safer, she said, pointing to rollover protective structures and seatbelts that are now standard on tractors, though older equipment still in use on many farms demands extra caution.
CASA also draws on support beyond Ottawa, Anderson noted. "AAFC doesn't fund the entire organization, right? So we also have funding from producer groups and from industry that really help keep our doors open and keep us delivering these programs," she said, adding that CASA operates as a not-for-profit. "We are really pleased that folks see the importance of farmers and farm families, farmworkers and farming communities, and are willing to make that investment in them. We talk about nation building, and that's really part of nation building, is keeping those folks that grow our food and work in primary industry safe."
