National Strategy for Soil Health Act

This bill requires the federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food to create a national strategy aimed at protecting, conserving, and improving soil health across Canada. The Minister must work with other federal ministers (Environment, Health, Indigenous Services, Natural Resources, and others as needed), and must give provincial governments, Indigenous governing bodies, and municipalities a chance to help shape the strategy. The Minister is also required to consult publicly with stakeholders, agricultural industry representatives, and interested individuals, and specifically to make sure farmers from different regions and types of operations are meaningfully heard.

The strategy itself must address several things: recognizing soil as a strategic national asset tied to food security; measures to sustainably and profitably protect and improve soil's productive capacity; ways to improve scientific knowledge and data collection about soil conditions (like contamination, carbon content, and water-holding capacity); education, training, and information-sharing initiatives, including support for research, technical assistance, and Indigenous knowledge and stewardship practices; and public awareness efforts, including a national soil information system. It must also include recommendations on creating a "National Advocate for Soil Health" position and on setting targets, timelines, and resources needed to achieve soil health goals.

Finally, the bill sets reporting deadlines: the Minister must table the completed strategy in Parliament within two years of the law coming into force and publish it online shortly after. Then, starting three years after that report is tabled, and every three years afterward, the Minister must report to Parliament on which measures have been implemented, why others haven't been, and any updates or new recommendations — with each of these reports also published online.

This bill requires the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food to develop, table, publish and periodically review a national strategy on soil health, in collaboration with other ministers, governments and Indigenous bodies.

• Who must act — the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, working with the Ministers of the Environment, Health, Indigenous Services, Natural Resources and "any other relevant Ministers," none of whom are named or bound by specific voting or approval procedures.
• Consultation requirements — the Minister must give provincial governments, Indigenous governing bodies and municipal governments an "opportunity to collaborate," and must consult stakeholders, agricultural representatives and "any interested persons," with no defined process, timeline, or method for how input is weighed.
• Content left undefined — the strategy must address soil recognition, sustainability, knowledge-building, education, and a recommendation on appointing a National Advocate for Soil Health and setting targets and timelines, but the Act does not create this Advocate position, set any targets, or specify what legislative measures must actually contain — these are left for the strategy itself to propose.
• Reporting and oversight — the Minister must table a report on the strategy in Parliament within two years of the Act coming into force, publish it online within 10 days, and produce follow-up review reports every three years thereafter, tabled and published on the same schedule; there is no vote on these reports and no enforcement mechanism if deadlines are missed.
• No new spending or regulatory authority created — the Act does not itself establish funding, penalties, regulations, or a new agency; any such measures would depend on the strategy's future recommendations and subsequent government action outside this Act.
• Sunset or expiry — none stated; the reporting cycle continues indefinitely at three-year intervals.