Canada adds over $600 million to key agriculture sectors

The Government of Canada has earmarked additional investments in its supply-managed dairy, poultry and egg industries.
calendar icon 1 December 2020
clock icon 2 minute read

The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, announced a substantial package that delivers on the Government of Canada's commitment to full and fair compensation for the market access concessions made under the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

The new package will add an additional C$691 million ($531.87 million) to Canada's dairy, poultry and egg farmers, while also reducing the timeline for payment promised to dairy farmers in 2019. 

Canada's supply-managed dairy, poultry and egg farmers are part of the backbone of the Canadian agriculture sector and the Canadian economy. They continue delivering the best quality products to the kitchen tables of Canadians, despite challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. The strength of Canada's supply management sector is essential to the vitality of our family farms and rural regions from across Canada.

 

Minister Bibeau said, "Our Government is fully behind our supply management sector, which supports our family farms and the vitality of our rural areas. [This] announcement of a substantial compensation package for our dairy, poultry and egg farmers shows our support for a strong supply management sector for many generations to come."

In August 2019, Minister Bibeau announced that $1.75 billion would be provided to compensate Canadian dairy farmers over 8 years. Between December 2019 and January 2020, more than 10,000 dairy farmers received a cash payment of $345 million. The Government has set a schedule to deliver the remaining $1.405 billion through direct payments to farmers over a timeline of only three years.

Pierre Lampron, President, Dairy Farmers of Canada, said, "The level of certainty provided by this announcement enables us to be in a better position in terms of innovations and efficiencies to better compete with increase imports of dairy products made from foreign milk."

Dairy farmers will receive, on the basis of their milk quota, cash payments of $468 million in 2020-21, $469 million in 2021-22 and $468 million in 2022-23. The owner of a farm with 80 dairy cows will be awarded compensation in the form of a direct payment of approximately $38,000 each year. These amounts also build on the $250 million CETA on-farm investment program, and provide certainty on the schedule and form of remaining payments in the $2 billion total compensation package for dairy farmers.

Furthermore, the Government of Canada remains committed to engaging the sector on full and fair compensation for the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), and to processors of supply managed products.

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