The Americans’ real anger is that they didn’t negotiate well regarding tariff rate quotas (TRQs) for new access to the Canadian dairy market during the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), said Andrea van Vugt, with Wellington Advisory, which advises Dairy Farmers of Ontario.

That means there’s likely room to negotiate on dairy with the U.S.

WHY IT MATTERS: The loss of supply management would have a significant impact on rural communities, particularly in Ontario and Quebec.

“I think the easy win is on TRQ administration,” said Stephen de Boer, who is on Wellington Advisory’s strategic advisory board and was previously part of the federal government advising on areas like defence. He also served as an ambassador, including to the World Trade Organization.

De Boer and van Vugt were part of a discussion at the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s 2026 annual meeting in Toronto, held Jan. 13-15.

There’s a route to allowing the Americans a new way to administer TRQs, “and call it a day”, said de Boer.

When Canada negotiated its most recent trade agreements, including CUSMA and the Comprehensive Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), it did not spell out how we would administer the TRQs, and that allowed Canada to give the TRQs to Canadian processors, not directly to retailers.

New Zealand also didn’t like that this method of TRQ allocation was the same in the CPTPP.

“It’s not what they expected, but it is what we negotiated,” said de Boer.

Van Vugt and de Boer also agreed that the negotiations would likely mean more access to the Canadian market for American products.

However, there doesn’t appear to be a lot of appetite for eliminating supply management for poultry and dairy.

“When I’ve talked to U.S. officials, and when I say U.S. officials, I mean certain U.S. officials who may live in Canada, representing U.S. interests in Canada,” they are concerned about the U.S. dairy sector facing competition from Canadian farmers, because they know that will happen, said van Vugt.

That doesn’t mean that Trump couldn’t make a larger, unexpected request, she said, as that’s in character for Trump, and he has prioritized dairy as an irritant.

De Boer said the Americans also understand that they use some supply management techniques to manage dairy production, too.

He added he expects chicken negotiations not to be arduous. “Our negotiators are excellent, particularly in negotiating in this space.”

Why the CUSMA review is toothless

The inclusion of a review clause in the CUSMA agreement was a step up from the previous North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) because there was no such clause.

However, the clause has little power, said van Vugt.

“The review clause really is just, we’re going to get together, we’re going to talk if we disagree about things, we’re going to get together again in a few years and talk again. That’s it,” she said.

The review clause has become the “pointy end of a stick” that Trump is using, said de Boer, and it could lead to greater pressure tactics like the Americans threatening to leave the agreement.

He said he expects at minimum that CUSMA countries will be into yearly reviews, until renegotiation.

Trump operates by trying to gain leverage in anything he does, so it makes sense he will try the same game around CUSMA.

“I understand why he’s doing it, but I don’t think he has as much leverage as he thinks he has,” said de Boer, adding that Trump could take many actions, including adding new tariffs or blocking the border to access to some Canadian products.

Negotiators still to be determined

Van Vugt and de Boer both expressed their dismay that Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to the United States and a skilled trade negotiator, has resigned her role. New negotiators in the federal government are being vetted and should be revealed soon. Van Vugt said it won’t be the new ambassador to the U.S. Mark Wiseman. Ambassadors usually don’t negotiate trade deals.

Van Vugt called Hillman “an incredible representative of Canada” and “an incredible advocate with incredible knowledge of the supply management industry.”

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The report was full of predictions that came true, as well as a few surprises. This year’s report was the 16th annual.

Food prices were driven higher in 2025 by meat, said Sylvain Charlebois, the lead of Canada’s Food Price Report. Charlebois is the Director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University. He leads Canada’s Food Price Report, but the report was developed by a collective of scholars.

“In fact, we claimed last year that meat would be driving food inflation, and we underestimated how significantly meat prices would go up. That was really the big story in 2025,” he said.

Meat prices to stay high

Unfortunately, the group expects meat prices will remain a huge factor for 2026.

“Beef is an issue, of course, it’s been an issue for a while now, and we don’t see how the situation will normalize itself before at least mid-year 2027,” he said. “Ranchers are leaving the industry. It’s difficult for ranchers across North America.”

The high prices of beef are encouraging people to change to other types of meat, like chicken.

“We’re short on chicken because of higher beef prices. The situation with beef is really a major issue for meat counter economics in general,” he said.

Chicken raised in Canada is under supply management.

“Supply shouldn’t be a problem, but it is a problem right now, because we’re importing more chicken from abroad. But I don’t think that is going to last. I do think the chicken industry will recover eventually. It’s kind of awkward to have supply management and import more chicken from the United States right now,” he said.

Fruit and vegetable inflation down

Vegetables and fruits had their inflation rates go down in 2025 compared to 2024.

“We were expecting increases to be in the positive, but the increases didn’t accelerate as much as we expected,” he said.

The group thought the “Buy Canadian” movement and the entire American boycott would put a lot of pressure on grocers to source products that are cheaper or the same price in America.

“But we were spared, and I think that’s due to the Canadian dollar. I think the Canadian dollar remained a non-issue. That came as a surprise, I would say,” said Charlebois.

Food affordability is a top concern for consumers. A quarter of Canadian households are considered food insecure, and nearly 2.2 million people visited food banks in Canada monthly this year.

Charlebois said there are numerous factors that affect food prices including geopolitics, global weather events, policy enactment, consumer behaviour and changes in retail models. Energy costs, climate change, interest rates, labour costs, the level of consolidation in a sector, and consumer demand, including whether consumers have more money or less money to spend on food.

“These are the things that impact food prices over time. But the bottom line is that not one node of the growth of the food supply chain totally controls food prices,” he said.

Trade wars affect food prices

In 2025, food prices were affected by the trade dispute between Canada and the United States and subsequent policy changes. Consumer-led movements also altered the economic retail landscape, impacting food price inflation.

Charlebois said farmers would say there’s a weak correlation between protein prices, and retail prices, and they’re correct to say so.

“So even though there is a weak correlation between the two, production does have an impact on how food is sourced to supply grocery stores in general,” he said.

When people spend more money at the grocery store, the farmer gets a bigger proportion of the farm bill. With retail, 13 to 15 per cent of the money spent at the grocery store goes back to the farmer compared to food service, where about four per cent to five percent goes back to the farmer from food service.

“Right now, there is a strong movement towards staying retail for consumers, because they’re trying to save as much money as possible, and they’re avoiding restaurants, so that could actually be a positive for farmers in general,” said Charlebois.

Temporary foreign workers

Temporary foreign workers are widely used along the food supply chain. In 2024, Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program brought in over 78,000 workers into the agricultural industry. The Canadian government is revisiting its immigration policy and has announced plans to reduce the share of temporary residents in Canada to less than five per cent of the population by 2027, to encourage more domestic labour and improve youth employment rates. Agriculture is exempt from this cap.

The current population of temporary foreign workers is at seven per cent.

There are concerns that shifts with temporary workers could lead to a major labour shortage in agriculture, disrupting the supply chain and costing businesses already operate on tight margins. The costs would be passed down to the consumer.

Charlebois said the research team is concerned about the temporary foreign worker problem.

“It’s a very important program to support our farmers,” he said. The information about temporary foreign workers was added to Canada’s Food Price Report, to send a clear signal to government that the temporary foreign worker program in agriculture should not be compromised, he said.

Food bill to rise “a lot”

The report also contains predictions for 2026.

“We’re expecting the average family (of four) to see their food bill increased by $1,000, so we’re expecting an increase of four to six per cent, so that’s a lot. I believe it’s the highest we’ve ever seen in 16 years. That’s going to be pushed by two categories; meat and the centre of the store. That’s pantry goods and dry goods. This is not going to help consumers,” he said.

“We think it’s going to push inflation higher,” he said.

The ongoing trade dispute with the United States will continue to affect prices next year. The inflationary aspects of the tariffs and counter-tariffs will continue in 2026 as trade tensions reshape the economic landscape. Canada is strengthening its relationships with other international trading partners to build resilience and competitiveness.

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On Oct. 1, the Globe and Mail reported that a potential change to bilateral trade law allowing for more U.S.-sourced dairy on Canadian grocery shelves was being floated in Ottawa, citing unnamed sources close to the issue but who were “not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.”

That contrasts with official word from the federal minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade. A spokesperson from the office of Dominic Leblanc reiterated commitments to protect Canadian industry, said that their office had engaged with supply managed industries and stated that ““Canada’s supply management system will never be on the table,” when asked for comment from the Globe and Mail.

WHY IT MATTERS: Supply management, and dairy in particular, has been a prime target for U.S. irritation as trade tensions between Canada and the U.S. continue.

The article further noted that Leblanc had launched consultations between government representatives and “key players” in Canada’s dairy industry Sept. 19, in advance of 2026’s anticipated review of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).

Neither LeBlanc or industry sources offered further comment. The two unnamed sources said talks thus far had focused on import restriction changes.

Access to Canadian dairy markets and supply management systems are forecast to be among the CUSMA review’s most heated exchanges, particularly in light of U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated condemnation of the practice.

Tariff rate quota, which earmarks certain dairy volumes to come into Canada at lower duty levels, has been a particular sticking point, not only from the Trump administration, but also during the Biden administration, as well as creating tension between Canada and New Zealand. Trading partners have argued that TRQ rights tended to be unfairly reserved for Canadian processors, leaving little room for access.

In 2021, Canada faced a CUSMA complaint over the issue from the U.S., after which it made changes to how TRQs were administered.

The U.S., however, has long pushed for a more open system. That less regulated access has been resisted strongly by the Canadian government and supply management advocates, who argue that the current system has been key for providing consistent market conditions and has bolstered the health of sectors like Canadian dairy and poultry.

The consultations also take place in the shadow of Bill C-202, the successor to Bill C-282, which died on the floor when Canada’s federal election was called in early 2025. The bill limits Canada’s ability to make trade concessions impacting supply managed industries. It was welcomed by supply management advocates, but denounced by export-reliant agriculture sectors, who argued that it de-fanged Canada at the negotiating table. Bill C-202 received royal assent on June 26 of this year.

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Of the 4,330 people surveyed, 57 per cent said they’d cut tariffs to make a deal on canola, while 24 per cent said they’d leave the duties as-is.

China imposed 75.8 per cent tariffs on Canadian canola seed in August, adding to 100 per cent tariffs on canola oil and meal and peas, and 25 per cent tariffs on seafood and pork levied earlier this year.

The tariffs are widely believed to be in retaliation for Canada’s tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, steel and aluminum.

Regional and party lines

Regionally, the preference for reducing EV tariffs was highest in Saskatchewan at 68 per cent, though a majority in all regions indicated they’d lower the duties.

The majority of respondents across all political party affiliations were in favour of reducing tariffs. The highest support was among NDP voters at 67 per cent, followed by Liberal voters at 64 per cent, Bloc Quebecois at 53 per cent, and Conservative at 52 per cent.

Asked earlier this month if dropping the tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles would help the canola sector, federal ag minister Heath MacDonald said the government was reviewing that policy.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, who recently returned from a trade mission to China, told CBC that it was “is not as simple” as dropping tariffs to make a deal but that it’s important Ottawa finds a solution that works for all of Canada.

Supply management over auto sector

Surveyed Canadians also voiced support for the supply-managed sectors.

Asked if they would rather protect Canada’s supply-managed dairy and poultry sectors, even if it meant a worse outcome for auto exports to the U.S., or ensure strong access for Canadian autos at the expense of Canadian dairy and poultry, 62 per cent of Canadians chose supply management. Support was highest in Quebec, with 73 per cent choosing supply management. Support waned to 54 per cent in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Support for the supply-managed sectors was highest among Bloc Quebecois voters at 87 per cent and lowest among Conservative voters at 42 per cent.

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“In international relations, the pot can call the kettle black — but doing so doesn’t build trust, goodwill, or alliances, and weakens credibility,” said Al Mussell, Agri-Food Economic Systems’ research lead and author of the policy paper.

Despite criticisms of Canadian dairy policy, the American dairy industry has many of the same protectionist tendencies Canada does, Mussell argued in Throwing Stones from a Glass House: Understanding the US Narrative on Canada Dairy Policy.

Complaints from the industry, President

Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump wrote an open letter in which he accused Canada of charging “extraordinary Tariffs to (American) Dairy Farmers — up to 400%.”

This figure has been disputed, though Canada’s dairy tariffs are over 200 per cent.

Recently members of the National Milk Producers Federation in the U.S. told the U.S. International Trade Commission that Canada was undermining American dairy producers’ access to foreign markets with “artificially low-priced exports.”

Despite the frequent American complaints, “there are many similarities in dairy and trade policies between the U.S. and Canada,” Mussell said in a news release.

Systems compared

These policy parallels include pricing milk collected from farms in end-use classes and “barriers to imports that facilitate the operating of their respective milk marketing systems,” the paper said.

In trade policy, both countries use tariffs and tariff-rate quotas (TRQs).

“The level of access that Canada offers to its dairy market via TRQs is … proportionately much higher than the U.S.,” due to high accessibility for products like skim milk powder,” said Mussell.

The two countries are also remarkably similar in how they administer permits and allocate TRQ.

The U.S. has objected to the allocation of dairy import permits by Canada to processors, “but this is what the U.S. does,” Mussell wrote.

He noted Canada allocates dairy import permits proportional to historical imports or output and so does the U.S.

Although the U.S. has complained that Canada doesn’t fill some of its dairy import quotas, Mussell said the U.S. leaves many of its own dairy import quotas unfilled.

Meanwhile, the U.S. also employs policy measures that distort markets, like pooling of milk revenue to advantage dairy manufacturing, and non-tariff barriers relating to Grade A milk products that the U.S . employs and Canada does not.

Mussell also noted the crucial differences between the two countries’ systems, like the pricing structure. Canada’s system is based mostly on cost of production. The U.S. pricing structure is more variable, requiring government stabilization program support.

The similarity between the two nations’ dairy trade policy presents an opportunity for alignment, Mussell concluded.

The full policy note is available here.

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Trump, in a letter released on social media, told Prime Minister Mark Carney the rate would take effect on August 1, and would go up if Canada retaliated.

Grain Growers of Canada (GGC) Executive Director Kyle Larkin wrote in a post on X “note that USMCA compliant goods, such as grain and grain products, (for now) continue to be tariff free despite the recent announcement.”

Goods under the Canada-US-Mexico Trade Agreement are currently exempted from 25 per cent U.S. tariffs. A White House official said the exemption would likely continue, Reuters reported.

Trump repeats dairy tariff claims

In the letter, Trump specifically mentioned Canadian dairy as a justification.

“Canada charges extraordinary Tariff’s to our Dairy Farmers — up to 400%,” Trump wrote, echoing a claim about supply management often considered misleading.

“That is even assuming our Dairy Farmers even have access to sell their products to the people of Canada. The Trade Deficit is a major threat to our Economy and, indeed, our national security!” the president said.

This could signal Trump’s use of supply management as a further negotiating tactic, said Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University.

“The economic stakes are low—but politically, supply management is the perfect wedge issue he can use to get what he really wants,” Charlebois said in a post to X on Friday.

Carney has previously said supply management is “off the table” and it would never be part of negotiations with Trump. Parliament has also passed legislation designed to protect supply management during trade talks.

Canadian farmers could feel downstream effects

Apart from their effects on agricultural goods, the previous tariffs have the potential for other downstream effects on Canadian farmers, such as the cost of equipment.

Farmers have not felt the brunt of this on equipment and machinery prices but could “if American tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum continue,” Grain Growers of Canada said in a written statement. “These goods are used in the manufacturing of American farm equipment, much of which is purchased by Canadian grain farmers.”

The majority of farm equipment falls under CUSMA so it’s not being tariffed, said Nancy Mace, VP of North American Equipment Dealers Association (NAEDA). However, she said she’s concerned about retaliatory tariffs potentially creating an “escalation of issues.”

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Analysts said ditching the digital services tax was politically easy for Prime Minister Mark Carney compared to even discussing Canada’s supply management system that since the 1970s has tightly controlled supplies of dairy, eggs and poultry by restricting production and limiting imports through onerous tariffs.

When Carney met with Trump in mid-June, he said the two leaders were aiming for a new economic agreement by July 21.

Trump, however, threatened in a Truth Social post on Friday to derail talks and impose new tariffs due to the digital service tax, which had been scheduled to take effect on Monday.

Supply management an old sticking point

In the same post, Trump also attacked tariffs on dairy products.

Carney and Trump both confirmed negotiations had restarted with the removal of the tax.

“Trump is basically one Truth Social post away from creating political chaos in Canada,” said Sylvain Charlebois, a food industry analyst and professor at Dalhousie University.

Canada’s supply management system was a sticking point in trade negotiations during Trump’s first term, but withstood the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in 2020. By March in his second term, Trump threatened reciprocal U.S. tariffs on dairy due to what he called tremendously high Canadian tariffs.

The USMCA provided limited duty-free quotas for U.S. dairy products, but for anything above these levels, tariffs on specific products can exceed 200 per cent. Washington for years has unsuccessfully challenged the way that Ottawa has allocated the USMCA dairy quotas.

While some said dropping the digital services tax made Canada look weak, it has not been politically explosive and the tax was a little-known measure for many Canadians.

On the other hand, parliament amended legislation shortly before starting summer break to prevent supply management from being put on the table during trade talks, with unanimous support from all political parties in the House of Commons.

Supply management may not be off the table

Still, trade experts say the recent legislation would not stop Canada’s negotiators from discussing it.

“At the end of the day, a Canadian government is going to do what it needs to do with supply management to get a deal,” said Tyler McCann, the managing director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute, who thinks many farmers have a false belief that the legislation is binding.

The U.S. Commerce Department and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the U.S. ambassador in Ottawa declined to comment on trade talks.

Gabriel Brunet, spokesperson for Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, said in a statement the federal government “will always stand up for the Canadian dairy industry.”

“Our supply management system will never be on the table,” the statement said.

Canada’s dairy industry is particularly influential in Ottawa, with the majority of the country’s dairy farms located in the most-populous provinces of Quebec and Ontario, provinces seen as essential to winning any federal election.

Despite concessions to Trump during his first term, supply management survived the USMCA, survives within the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and operates within the Canada-EU deal, McCann noted.

Dairy Farmers of Canada, a lobby group, said that Trump’s Friday statement was “not supported by the facts,” noting the U.S. dairy industry ships more American dairy products to Canada than go the other way.

— Additional reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny

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Instead, the Bloc Quebecois amendments to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Act, which asks for supply management to be off the table in future trade negotiations, awaits Royal Assent. Parliament has recessed for the summer and returns in mid-September and the final step is required before the bill can be put in force.

This comes after two similar bills were extensively studied by the Commons and the Senate agriculture committees in previous sessions without either of them making it this far.

‘Flawed piece of legislation’

The Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance said the bill is “a flawed piece of legislation that sets a troubling precedent.”

The organization representing exporters said it undermines the country’s commitment to rules-based international trading and sends the wrong message to trading partners.

CAFTA and others urged Ottawa to now focus on its accelerated trade diversification agenda.

“This includes continuing to open new markets, invest in and support the priorities of the export-oriented agriculture sector, address non-tariff barriers impacting existing trade agreements and remove regulatory barriers that are unnecessarily restricting the sector’s growth and competitiveness,” it said.

Grain Growers of Canada also called on the government to address issues that are affecting international trade, including critical infrastructure investments at the Port of Vancouver, returning public plant breeding research funding to pre-2013 levels and boosting the work of the Market Access Secretariat.

Executive director Kyle Larkin said there are now serious risks for Canada’s 70,000 grain farmers, who export more than 70 per cent of what they grow.

He said the government promised to expand the economy and expand international trade yet this was the first bill it passed.

“This legislation received unanimous consent from Members of Parliament without consulting with the Canadians it impacts the most, forcing the Senate to fast-track a flawed bill,” Larkin said.

Bill’s precedent questioned

The Senate vote was not unanimous.

The debate over previous iterations of the bill pit supply managed farmers against exporters. GGC acting chair Scott Hepworth said the government has now prioritized one group of farmers over another.

In the Senate, Alberta Senator Paula Simons said she felt uneasy at the speed with which C-202 went through both houses and put the concerns of several farmers who had contacted her on the record.

“My friends, with protectionism running rampant, when tariff and non-tariff trade barriers are popping up everywhere, Canada should not be giving in to populous protectionism. We should set an example as world leaders by taking down barriers, not building them higher,” she said.

Simons also said she worries about national unity.

“It does seem strange to allow a separatist party to set Canada’s national trade policy to such an extent and at the expenses of Western Canadian producers and agricultural exporters,” she said.

Canadian Cattle Association president Tyler Fulton said C-202 is bad trade policy.

“Trade is not a political game and C-202 was never about supply management,” he said.

Numerous witnesses spoke both for and against the bill during committee studies in the last few years. Sen. Amina Gerba, who had sponsored C-282 in the previous go-round, said everything has changed since Donald Trump became president and said he would go after Canada’s supply management system.

She said Prime Minister Mark Carney promised during the election campaign to protect supply management and he did.

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Party leader Yves-Francois Blanchet introduced Bill C-202 May 29, and on June 5 it was sent to the Senate without any debate. It follows Bill C-282 in the last Parliament and C-216 in the one before that. Neither of those bills made it fully through the parliamentary process.

The bill would amend the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Act to protect supply managed industries in future trade negotiations. Exporters don’t like that idea, while supply management proponents say they’ve given up enough.

Blanchet said he promised during the campaign to introduce the bill because it is important to Quebec’s economy and reminded MPs that all political parties say they support supply management.

“Once again, I note that all of the political parties in the House have indicated that they will support this initiative. I therefore hope that we can move forward quickly with the support of all members,” he said when introducing the bill.

He said the amendment deserved urgent attention.

The Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance urged the Commons and the Senate to reject it.

“As with previous iterations of this bill, C-202 would undermine Canada’s agri-food sector, damage our trade relationships and harm the thousands of farmers, ranchers, processors and agri-food exporters who rely on open access to global markets to make a living,” said president Greg Northey in a news release.

CAFTA said the bill would have implications for all sectors of the economy, not just agriculture, and that sectoral carveouts in trade negotiations would put objectives at risk at a time when Canada should be more ambitious.

The organization urged MPs to not bypass parliamentary procedure and send it directly to the Senate, but they did.

The debate over supply management also continues outside of politics.

University of Saskatchewan agricultural economics professor professor Stuart Smyth called for the system to be phased out “for the greater good of the country.”

In a June 3 commentary for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Smyth said that would lower the cost of dairy and poultry products for consumers. He called supply management “an outdated, flawed and costly system” and an anti-competitive production model.

Dairy Farmers of Canada begged to differ.

For one thing, farmers don’t set retail prices, the organization said after reviewing the commentary.

“The prices of supply managed products have remained stable and generally in line or below inflationary trends in Canada,” it said in an emailed statement.

“In 2024, the average retail price of milk was almost equal to that of the United States at $1.64 per litre in Canada versus $1.44 per litre in the U.S.”

At the same time, the average prices of yogurt, natural cheese blocks and butter were similar or lower.

DFC said American and other dairy systems receive direct financial production subsidies, which means consumers pay twice — through taxes and at the store.

Smyth said farms would be larger and more efficient without the supply managed system. DFC said Canadian dairies are smaller than those in the U.S. but that doesn’t make them inefficient.

Smyth said the new government should phase out supply management by removing 10 percentage points of total quota each year for the next 10 years. He also said the government should reduce tariffs by the same amount in the same time frame to encourage competition.

“Allowing new and existing producers to increase production based on free market signals will greatly reduce the waste and inefficiencies that have long existed in supply management production systems, such as the practice of dumping excess milk,” Smyth wrote.

DFC has disputed a study earlier this year that estimated Canadian dairy farms dumped 6.8 billion litres of milk between 2012 and 2024.

Smyth also argued that dairy production could and should move to the Prairies because herds are already twice as large as the average Quebec herd and water is plentiful.

“Canadian dairy consumers are paying higher prices to subsidize small, inefficient Quebec dairies, while other dairies across Canada are dumping milk as they do not have enough quota to sell the full volume of milk they produce,” he said.

Smyth suggested four policies government could enact:

• Quota licences should be available nationally, rather than provincially.

• There should be a time-limited guarantee backstop for younger farmers who have used their quota as collateral.

• Financial institutions recognize the value of quota licences while the system is dismantled and not demand immediate repayment.

• The government should also provide a 10-year guarantee to farmers who demonstrate economic efficiencies and increase operating equity, thereby reducing their financial risk, before the system is officially dismantled.

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For more than 50 years, Canada’s supply management system has delivered something remarkable: a reliable supply of high-quality, nutritious food produced by Canadian farmers for Canadian families. That’s not just good policy—it’s good for people. At a time of much uncertainty, it is more important now than ever to have the right systems in place to ensure Canada’s ability to feed itself today and into the future.

Every day, over 1,200 Canadian egg farmers and farm families produce fresh, local eggs from Newfoundland and Labrador to British Columbia and everywhere in between. Together, our industry supports over 18,500 jobs across the country and contributes $1.3 billion to Canada’s GDP annually. These aren’t abstract numbers—they’re families, businesses, and rural communities that witness firsthand the benefits of supply management.

What makes this food system so unique is its made-in-Canada logic. Supply management empowers egg farmers to match production with demand, which in turn provides predictability for farmers, food processors, and consumers. That’s the kind of smart, self-sufficient model Canadians rely on. It’s a system that focuses on coordination, collaboration, and a deep respect for the food we produce, the people who produce it, and the Canadians who enjoy it.

As we have seen in recent years, supply management has helped Canada remain resilient, and it will continue to ensure we have strong domestic food supply chains even in the face of external market shocks and supply chain challenges. That’s not just an economic advantage—it’s a national security asset. In fact, with the ongoing geopolitical tensions, over 90 per cent of Canadians are convinced of the need to maintain Canada’s supply management system.

Throughout the campaign, we have been hearing a lot about affordability, jobs, local businesses and building an efficient, green economy. The good news is that supply management already delivers on many of these priorities, and its continued success depends on ongoing political leadership. Leadership that values strong domestic food production in a rapidly shifting global economy and recognizes that Canadians want domestic food self-sufficiency. This is why we are encouraging candidates from all political stripes to stand strong with our farmers and defend supply management as the essential pillar of Canada’s food system it is.

Canadians want to know that when they go to the grocery store, the eggs they buy are fresh, local and produced with care. They want policies that support the farmers who live in their communities and contribute to their economies. They want the made-in-Canada food they trust.

Supply management isn’t just a model for agriculture—it’s a model for the kind of Canada we want to live in. Canada’s egg farmers are looking to our leaders to show their strong support for this fundamental system that delivers stability and self-sufficiency to our food system.

— Roger Pelissero is a third-generation egg farmer and Chair of Egg Farmers of Canada

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