This would align it with the deadline on the Liberal government’s heating oil carbon price exemption, said Senator Yuen Pau Woo, who tabled the amendment.

Bill C-234 proposes exempting fuels for grain drying from the price on carbon. It was recently amended to remove fuels for barn and greenhouse heating from the proposed exemptions.

Senator Woo’s amendment, if passed, would reduce the bill’s sunset clause to three years from eight.

“In my view, Bill C-234 is not good public policy,” said Woo. “This is why I oppose it as much as I oppose the Liberal government’s exemption for home heating oil.”

“Unfortunately, we have no ability to debate the home heating oil exemption,” he added.

Senator David Wells, who sponsored the bill in the Senate, spoke in opposition to the amendment. He said that while in committee debates in the House of Commons, MPs had agreed to reduce the sunset clause from 10 years to eight.

“There was no debate at committee on that in the other place, and they all agreed that eight years was fair,” Wells said. “Now we’re hearing from Senator Woo that not 10 years, not eight years, but three years is fair.”

Debate adjourned before the amendment could go to a vote.

Meanwhile, Senators agreed to send earlier complaints of bullying to the Senate’s ethics committee for further examination. This relates to a question of privilege raised in late November by Senator Raymonde Saint-Germain, which alleged some Conservative senators attempted to intimidate colleagues into giving way on the bill.

—Geralyn Wichers is associate digital editor of AGCanada.com. She writes from southeastern Manitoba.

The post Senate tables second amendment for Bill C-234 appeared first on Country Guide.

The amendment, put forward by Senator Pierre Dalphond, passed by one vote–40 Senators voted yes, 39 voted no, and none abstained. It amends Bill C-234, a private members bill designed to exempt farm fuels for grain drying, barn and greenhouse heating from the price on carbon.

The bill, once it has been read for a third time in the Senate, will return to the House of Commons to be debated again.

In recent weeks the bill has proved a lightning rod for controversy.

Conservatives have accused the Liberal government of running interference on the bill. Conservative agriculture critic John Barlow suggested the Liberals had appointed five new senators to bolster votes against the bill. Conservative senators also said that amendments, which would send the bill back to the House of Commons, were a tactic to endlessly stall the bill until it died on the order paper. As per the House of Commons’ calendar, posted to its website, the final sitting day for the house is December 15.

Meanwhile, Senators who have aligned themselves against the bill accused Conservative senators of bullying and inciting harassment via social media.

The amendment may have expedited the inevitable. Earlier today, Dave Carey, the Canadian Canola Growers Association’s vice-president of government and industry relations, told AGCanada he’d been hearing that a Senator had another amendment lined up if this one failed.

In a post to social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Carey called the vote “Unbelievably disappointing.”

More to come.

—Geralyn Wichers is associate digital editor of AGCanada.com. She writes from southeastern Manitoba.

The post Senate votes to amend Bill C-234 appeared first on Country Guide.

Bill C-234, which passed the House of Commons in late March, remained on the Senate’s order paper for debate Wednesday afternoon, after adjournment Tuesday night without a vote on third reading of the bill — nor a vote on a proposed amendment from the Independent Senators Group (ISG).

The new amendment, put forward Nov. 9 by Ontario Senator Lucie Moncion — an ISG member appointed to the Senate in 2016 by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — would amend the bill’s proposed sunset clause so that after eight years, approval for an extension would require Parliament to pass a new bill.

Marc Gold, a non-affiliated senator who serves as the Liberal government’s representative in the Senate, was among those speaking Tuesday in favour of Moncion’s amendment.

Gold said that without Moncion’s proposed change, a review and extension of the bill’s proposed farm fuel exemptions beyond eight years “could proceed with a simple resolution passed in both chambers or by a decision of the executive branch, with no role for parliamentary scrutiny and oversight or committee examination and study.”

Senator Don Plett, leader of the opposition, called Moncion’s proposed amendment “frivolous” and said C-234, as was passed in the Commons, would already allow for a further extension to be initiated — and the length of that extension determined — only by the government, via an order-in-council.

A further extension also wouldn’t be granted unless approved by both the Commons and Senate, he added.

As written, C-234’s language for extending the time frame of its sunset clause “is not unique to this bill,” he said, citing a similar sunset clause for rail interswitching provisions in Bill C-30, the Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act.

Rather, Plett said, by forcing a Senate-amended C-234 back to the Commons, “the only utility of this amendment is to carry the (Liberal) government’s water and defeat the bill.”

‘Intimidation’

Debate on C-234 was to continue Tuesday evening but Quebec Senator Raymonde Saint-Germain, also an ISG member and Trudeau appointee, rose at that time on a question of privilege, citing an incident on Nov. 9 which she said infringed on senators’ privilege “to conduct our business free from obstruction and intimidation.”

At the Nov. 9 session, she said, ISG Senator Bernadette Clement’s motion to adjourn debate on the proposed amendment was met with some Conservative senators “demonstrat(ing) physical and verbal intimidation directed at members of my group and myself.

“After violently throwing his earpiece, (Plett) stood before Senator Clement and me as we sat at our desks, yelling and berating us for proposing this routine motion that would see debate resume the following week, when we returned,” Saint-Germain said, adding that another Conservative senator, Michael MacDonald, shouted the word “fascists” at ISG senators.

Later, Saint-Germain said, “at least two” Conservative senators retweeted a post on social media platform X “that not only spread misinformation about the proceedings but encouraged members of the public to call and harass” Clement and Senator Chantal Petitclerc, adding that it “elicited high volumes of threatening phone calls and emails to these independent senators.”

Clement, speaking Tuesday evening to Saint-Germain’s question of privilege, said “Canadians deserve to know that adjournment doesn’t mean a bill is being nixed, but that nuanced explanation wasn’t offered by people pointing the finger at me.”

Senate Speaker Raymonde Gagne noted some senators who had been mentioned in Saint-Germain’s question of privilege weren’t present Tuesday evening, and said she would hear “brief additional arguments” on the matter on Thursday.

However, Conservative Senator David Wells then put forward a separate question of privilege stemming from the same Nov. 9 sitting, saying Moncion had “walked over from her seat and accused me of bullying” after the session was suspended.

Such an action, he said, “creates an atmosphere that may hinder any senator from even contemplating engaging in free debate, lest they be accused of bullying.”

Moncion replied that she was not threatening in her approach but wanted to call attention to a separate tweet from Wells alleging that Gagne, as speaker, “in concert with the ISG leadership has shut down debate” on C-234.

“Receiving a point of privilege was disappointing, but I understand where you’re coming from,” she said. “You want an apology from me, I apologize, Senator Wells, and I apologize in front of this whole chamber.”

Asked by Gagne if he wished to pursue the matter further, Wells replied that “given the debate and the open discussion we’ve had as well as my professional and personal regard for Senator Moncion, I consider this issue closed.”

Debate on Moncion’s amendment resumed briefly before the Senate adjourned for the day at 11 p.m. to resume at 2 p.m. ET Wednesday. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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“I am specifically concerned that there are efforts underway to delay or substantially rewrite the bill in a way that will dampen the relief it will bring,” said Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in a letter sent to Senators Nov. 15.

When the Senate last sat on Nov. 9, Senators debated Bill C-234, an Act to amend the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act. The bill awaits its third reading, but Senators voted to adjourn debate until the next sitting.

The bill has been winding its way through the senate since March, and was first read in the House of Commons in February of 2022.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford wrote to Ontario Senators urging them to expedite the passage of the bill.

“The Senate has delayed this bill and continues to put off a final vote until at least the end of this month,” he said in the letter, dated Nov. 15.

“Canadians cannot afford to wait any longer,” he added. “By passing Bill C-234 into law without delay, you will be taking meaningful action to help the families and businesses that need it most.”

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe sent a similar letter on Nov. 14, in which he said that most Saskatchewan residents think the federal government “should remove the carbon tax on everything for everyone.”

“As that is unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future,” said Moe, the federal government should take steps to reduce its impact on families, including passing Bill C-234, he said.

Some farm groups hoped the bill would be passed in time for harvest this year. Ag groups have argued that farmers should not pay the price on carbon because they don’t have viable alternatives to propane and natural gas-fueled grain dryers, and few alternatives to heating with those fuels.

Earlier this month, the Senate’s committee for agriculture and forestry amended the bill to remove barn and greenhouse heating, but those amendments were voted down in the Senate chamber.

The Senate’s next fixed sitting day is Nov. 21, though Nov. 20 is a possible sitting day according to the Senate’s website.

—Geralyn Wichers is Associate Digital Editor with Glacier Farmmedia. She writes from Steinbach.

Updated. Nov. 16 to add comments from Premier Scott Moe.

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In a sitting on the afternoon of Nov. 7, senators voted no to the adoption of amendments made by the committee for agriculture and forestry. Twenty-eight voted yes, and four abstained.

The Senate then voted to conduct the third reading of the bill the next time it sits which, as per the Senate website, is Nov. 8. If the Senate votes to approve the bill without amendments after the third reading, it will be ready for royal assent.

Bill C-234 had its first reading in February of 2022. The private members’ bill proposed exempting fuels used for grain drying and heating of barns and greenhouses from the federal price on carbon.

While under consideration by the Senate’s committee for agriculture and forestry, senators voted by a narrow margin to remove barn and greenhouse heating from the bill.

Senator Pierre Dalphond proposed the amendment, telling the committee that while witnesses had made it clear there were no viable alternatives to drying grain with propane and natural gas, alternatives are possible with barns and greenhouses.

This received pushback from agriculture groups, not only because it would diminish relief for livestock and vegetable producers, but because an amendment would delay the progress of the bill.

On Monday, the Grain Farmers of Ontario and Ontario Pork put out statements urging the Senate to pass the bill as soon as possible.

Within minutes of the vote, Grain Growers of Canada released a statement applauding senators for voting down the amendment, and calling for swift passage of the bill.

Updated Nov. 8, correcting the name of Grain Farmers of Ontario.

— Geralyn Wichers reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Steinbach, Man.

The post Senate votes down C-234 amendments appeared first on Country Guide.

The Senate committee for agriculture and forestry passed one amendment to Bill C-234 on Oct. 19. That cut fuel for barn and greenhouse heating from the proposed exemption.

In final committee deliberations on Oct. 24, an amendment that would make it more difficult to extend the bill’s sunset clause was defeated with a tied vote.

Senator Yuen Pau Woo proposed the change, which would require a bill to extend the clause instead of an order-in-council. He said called this a “more rigorous, and indeed more proper” process.

Senator Don Plett objected to the amendment, saying it was unnecessary.

“[Without the amendment] this extension must be initiated by the government and must be approved by both houses of Parliament,” he said. “There is no harm in leaving the process in place in case it is needed, and on the other hand, removing the process would potentially harm producers.”

Senator Brent Cotter said that while he’d prefer a more typical legislative process to the one in the bill, he didn’t support the amendment.

“Every amendment that we introduce into this bill puts in jeopardy in the likelihood that the exemption in any form doesn’t see the light of day,” he said. “That seems to me to be sad and ironic since, based on our conversation last Thursday, we supported an aspect of the exemption itself… particularly with respect to grain drying.”

The bill will now proceed to a vote in the Senate chamber. Due to the amendment, it will also require another vote in the House of Commons.

Agriculture groups expressed dismay over the amendment, which cut barn and greenhouse heating from the bill.

“We are disappointed to see some Senators on the AGFO committee vote in favour of a harmful amendment that will only serve to further delay C-234,” said Kyle Larkin, executive director of Grain Growers of Canada (GGC). “Proceeding with this amendment will cost farmers thousands of dollars which otherwise could be invested in the sustainability and efficiency of their operations.”

GGC called on senators to reject the amendment.

“Its alteration by the Senate not only diminishes [carbon price] relief but also increases the cost of Canadian food production,” Jan VanderHout, president of the Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada, said in an Oct. 20 news release.

The bill was first introduced in the House of Commons in 2021.

—Geralyn Wichers writes for Glacier Farmmedia from Steinbach, Man.

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“Its alteration by the Senate not only diminishes [carbon price] relief but also increases the cost of Canadian food production,” Jan VanderHout, president of the Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada, said in a release Friday.

“It’s disheartening to witness this lost opportunity for meaningful impact,” he added.

In a meeting Thursday, the Senate committee for agriculture and forestry voted to amend C-234, An Act to amend the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act. Initially, the bill proposed to exempt fuels used for grain drying and barn and greenhouse heating, from the price on carbon.

Senator Pierre Dalphond proposed the amendment, telling the committee that while witnesses had made it clear there were no viable alternatives to drying grain with propane and natural gas, alternatives are possible with barns and greenhouses.

Better insulation, in-floor heating, geothermal and air-source heat pumps and energy-efficient ventilation systems were among the alternatives he suggested were available and were already being used in some applications due to incentives from carbon pricing.

“This amendment will maintain the financial incentive to reduce emissions from raising livestock in barns by investing in alternative or efficient barn heating or cooling, an option available right now,” Dalphond said.

This will also discourage other sectors from trying to get exemptions, he added — a point of concern from some senators and witnesses during committee hearings.

Senator Don Plett argued the amendment shouldn’t go forward because it would delay the bill, which he said had already passed in the House of Commons with support from the Green, Bloc Quebecois, NDP and Conservative parties.

Farm organizations are upset that a “handful of senators are, as they see it, are playing games with their livelihood,” he said.

If bills are amended at the Senate level, they must be debated again in the Commons.

Plett also accused Senators Dalphond and Yuen Pau Woo — who spoke in favour of the amendment — of delaying the bill at the Liberal government’s bidding.

Woo, in turn, suggested Plett was trying get the Senate to kowtow to the House of Commons’ wishes.

Senator Brent Cotter said he had other amendments he’d like considered but didn’t want to delay the bill. He argued that the Liberal government wants agriculture to be a pillar of the economy.

“This modest adjustment to the greenhouse gas tax burdens is a signal of our commitment to that economy and to the people who deliver the product,” Cotter said.

Senator Michael MacDonald said farm diesel and gasoline has already been exempted, so he didn’t see why other fuels shouldn’t be exempted.

The amendment passed 7-6, with one senator abstaining.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation called on Dalphond to withdraw the amendment.

“Why would senators want to make it more expensive for Canadian farmers to produce milk and eggs?” said Gage Haubrich, Prairie director for the CTF. “Dalphond needs to withdraw his amendment to hammer barn-heating bills with carbon taxes and get this legislation passed.”

The Grain Farmers of Ontario on Wednesday called on senators to pass the bill quickly.

“With grain farmers from across Ontario now busy harvesting their crops and grain drying on the immediate horizon, they are counting on Bill C-234 becoming law as soon as possible to provide financial relief this growing season,” Brendan Byrne, chair of Grain Farmers of Ontario, said in a statement.

The bill was first introduced in the House of Commons in 2021.

At time of writing, the committee was scheduled to continue its clause-by-clause deliberation of the bill on Tuesday (Oct. 24).

— Geralyn Wichers reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Steinbach, Man. 

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Exchange Income Corp. (EIC) announced Oct. 5 it has bought DryAir Manufacturing of St. Brieux for about $60 million in cash and EIC stock.

DryAir, in business since 1994, produces hydronic central heating and drying systems — that is, systems that use circulating fluids for heating or cooling — for applications such as construction site heating, ground thawing and concrete curing, among others.

The company’s grain drying system uses a hydronic central heating unit to distribute heated fluid to sets of portable coils, which heat the intake air to be fed into grain bins via aeration fans. DryAir systems have been similarly used in commercial processing, such as drying dehydrated alfalfa pellets.

“DryAir checks all the boxes that we look for in acquisitions,” EIC CEO Mike Pyle said in a release. “They have a strong management team, company culture, industry reputation and sustainable growing cash flows.”

“We are consistently recognized for the quality of our products and that can only be accomplished with the help of each and every one of our employees in St. Brieux,” said DryAir founder Claude Bourgault, whose brothers Gerry and Joe are the presidents of St. Brieux-based ag equipment makers Bourgault Industries and Bourgault Tillage Tools, respectively.

“When we decided to sell, we foremost wanted a partner that held the same values as ourselves and our community.”

Bourgault and DryAir CEO and co-owner Myrlen Kleiboer will remain in their management roles with the company. “We know EIC will continue to support our employees and St. Brieux which was an important objective in defining our legacy,” Kleiboer said in the same release.

DryAir, Kleiboer said, “will continue to pursue new product development and creating new technologies for our ultimate customers.”

EIC’s other holdings include Canadian regional airline operators such as CalmAir, Perimeter Aviation, CarsonAir and the PAL Group, and several industrial parts and equipment manufacturers such as LV Control Manufacturing, a Winnipeg firm that makes control and automation systems for agricultural material processing and handling.

EIC’s acquisition of DryAir takes the form of $45 million in cash from its credit facility and $15 million in EIC shares, the company said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Thursday morning the Senate’s committee on agriculture and forestry heard final witnesses speak on Bill C-234, which would amend the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act to expand farm-related carbon price exemptions.

At the committee’s next meeting on Oct. 17, it will consider potential amendments before returning it to the senate chamber where they will debate the bill again before a third reading.

If the bill is amended, it will return to the House of Commons to be reviewed again before being given royal assent and becoming law.

In June, the Keystone Agricultural Producers, the Alberta Federation of Agriculture and the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) urged the Senate to pass Bill C-234 before Parliament’s summer break.

The bill, first introduced in the House of Commons in November 2021, passed its second reading in the Senate on June 13. The Senate rose for summer on June 30.

Witness statements

The Sept. 26 meeting heard from representatives of the Agriculture Carbon Alliance, which is a coalition of 15 farm groups, the Grain Growers of Canada, the Ontario Agri Business Association, the Climate Action Network, the David Suzuki Foundation and a professor from the University of B.C.

Two days later, the committee heard from representatives of the National Farmers Union, Saskatchewan’s general farm group (APAS) and an academic from the University of Ottawa. They also heard from civil servants regarding the cost of the proposed exemptions.

Proponents of the bill told the committee that farmers have no choice but to use machinery fueled by natural gas and propane to dry their grain, as viable alternatives don’t currently exist. Arguments focused mainly on grain drying, making little reference to heating farm buildings.

Russel Hurst, executive director of the Ontario Agri Business Association, made a bid to have grain drying at commercial grain elevators included in the exemption. He told the committee that, unlike in the West, many Ontario farmers pay to have their grain dried at the elevator. The elevator then passes on the cost of the fuel, including the carbon price, to farmers.
Senator Paula Simons said one could argue all businesses do that, and Hurst conceded this was fair.

Black asked if it was worth amending the bill to include grain elevators, at the risk of the bill not passing. Dave Carey and Scott Ross, co-chairs of the Agricultural Carbon Alliance, and Kyle Larkin, executive director of the Grain Growers of Canada, said it was not worth the risk.

“We’ve been waiting for years,” Larkin said.

Hurst said they aspired to have legislation that suited all growers.
Other witnesses suggested that exempting fuels from the price on carbon would remove farmers’ and equipment manufacturers’ incentive to switch to cleaner technology.

B.C. researcher Kathryn Harrison argued that exemptions undermine the effectiveness and fairness of the price on carbon and added that she was concerned that this wouldn’t be the last exemption.

Tom Green, who represented the David Suzuki Foundation, argued that “every sector can come up with their own reason for why they deserve relief.”

Carey rebutted that farmers want to innovate, and the eight-year sunset clause currently built into the bill would give a deadline to farmers and equipment providers, pushing them to develop new solutions.

University of Ottawa associate professor Nicholas Rivers said that while, “there are legitimate concerns that the carbon price puts Canadian grain farmers at a [competitive] disadvantage,” completely exempting fuels from the carbon price would remove the price signal that incentivized improvement. Murray Jowett, who represented the National Farmers Union, agreed.

Simons questioned whether returning money to farmers was the right tactic at all. She asked the witnesses if it would be better to put the money toward green technology development.

The senators also considered if the current rebate program needs to be more targeted. It currently pays out farmers based on their farm expenses, which aren’t necessarily tied to grain drying or heating buildings.

The rebate program has been panned by agriculture groups for being inequitable.

Senator Yuen Pau Woo asked whether the rebate could be targeted toward farms more affected by the carbon price on natural gas and propane.

Rivers said a better rebating system, such as an output-based system similar to those for large industrial emitters, would alleviate the cost to farmers while still providing some incentive for innovation.

The committee also met Oct. 3 where it heard from representatives of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.

During the Oct. 5 meeting, senators heard from a professor from the University of Guelph’s engineering department, and the senior research chair for agricultural engineering and technology from Lethbridge College. Both were questioned about available clean grain drying technology.

–Geralyn Wichers reports for the Glacier Farmmedia network from Steinbach, Man.

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Members of the House of Commons voted June 21 to adjourn until Sept. 18, while the Senate did likewise June 22, to return Sept. 19.

While the two houses of Parliament were able to see to passage and royal assent of the federal budget bill last week among other government legislation, at least three private members’ bills — on which multiple farmer groups have lobbied for months — are now parked for the summer, including:

• Bill C-234, An Act to amend the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act;
• Bill C-280, An Act to amend the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (deemed trust – perishable fruits and vegetables); and
• Bill C-282, An Act to amend the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Act (supply management).

C-234

Introduced Feb. 7 last year in the Commons by Conservative MP Ben Lobb, C-234 passed third reading in the House on March 29 this year. It last appeared in the Senate on June 13, when it passed second reading.

The Senate on June 13 also referred C-234 to the standing Senate committee on national finance, “to examine and report on the subject matter of the bill.” The bill was also referred to the standing Senate committee on agriculture and forestry, which the Senate also authorized to take into account any findings from the finance committee’s study.

C-234 would grant farmers an exemption from federal carbon pricing on propane and natural gas used for drying grain and heating of barns.

Farmer groups including the Alberta Federation of Agriculture, Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan and Manitoba’s Keystone Agricultural Producers had called on the Senate on June 13 to pass the bill before breaking for the summer.

“We understand that senators are looking forward to enjoying the summer season. Prairie farmers want to enjoy theirs by knowing this bill is passed so they can look forward to the fall harvest,” APAS president Ian Boxall said at the time in a joint release.

“If we experience a wet harvest like 2019, I have real concerns about the added burden farms across Saskatchewan and the Prairies will be forced to absorb.”

C-280

Introduced on June 8 last year by Conservative MP Scot Davidson, C-280 passed second reading in the Commons on May 17 this year and was referred at that time to the Commons standing committee on agriculture and agri-food.

Several Canadian produce growers’ groups said last Thursday in a joint release that they were “thrilled” to then see the committee pass the bill “without amendment and with the support of all political parties” on June 21.

C-280 proposes to set up a “deemed trust,” which the groups described as “a vital financial protection mechanism for fresh produce sellers in Canada.”

Such a trust is meant to help growers of fruits and vegetables secure payment in the event of buyer bankruptcy. “The perishable nature of fresh produce, coupled with the industry’s typically longer payment terms, leave sellers unable to recover losses when faced with buyer bankruptcy,” said the groups, which included the Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada, Canadian Produce Marketing Association and Fruit and Vegetable Dispute Resolution Corporation.

“The recent case of Lakeside Produce in Leamington, Ont. serves as a reminder of the urgent need for a financial protection tool to safeguard this essential sector and uphold food security in Canada,” they said.

Such a trust could also help restore Canadian producers’ access to the U.S. Perishable Agricultural Marketing Act Trust (PACA Trust), which provides a protection mechanism to secure payment in case of a U.S. buyer’s bankruptcy.

The U.S. government in 2014 withdrew Canada’s preferred access to the PACA Trust payment dispute arbitration mechanism, unless or until such time as Canada comes up with an equally effective resolution process for buyer defaults.

“Looking ahead to the final rounds of debate and voting in the House of Commons, we are optimistic that all parties will continue to lend their support and work to advance the bill as quickly as possible,” FVGC executive director Rebecca Lee said. The groups acknowledged the bill would not return to the Commons again until this fall.

C-282

Introduced June 13 last year by Bloc Quebecois MP Luc Theriault, C-282 completed third reading in the Commons last week, on June 21, and passed first reading in the Senate the following day.

The bill, Theriault said last year, is meant to “protect supply management from further dilution in future international trade negotiations,” following tariff rate quota concessions granted to imports through the Canada-E.U. free trade agreement (CETA), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) which he said “really did a number on this agricultural system.”

The bill would amend existing federal legislation with new provisions to exclude supply management from future trade negotiations.

Groups representing farmers in Canada’s supply-managed dairy, poultry and egg sectors, in a joint release June 22, hailed the bill’s passage in the Commons, saying it would “safeguard the sustainability” of production in those sectors.

However, the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance, which represents producer groups in export-dependent ag sectors, said June 21 its members were “profoundly disappointed” in C-282’s passage in the Commons.

CAFTA president Dan Darling said the bill will diminish Canada’s negotiating hand in future trade negotiations and MPs who voted to pass the bill “have chosen to entrench protectionism and favour one economic sector above all others.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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