On a dairy farm in the Eastern Townships, Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau re-affirmed the Government’s commitment to provide compensation for supply-managed sectors for the impacts of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
Article continues below
>
“Promise made, promise kept. We made a commitment to fully and fairly compensate the market losses suffered by dairy, poultry and egg producers and processors, and that is what we have done. I would like to reiterate our government’s commitment not to concede any further market shares under supply management during future trade negotiations," the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food said.
Dairy, poultry and egg producers and processors are expected to share more than $1.7 billion in direct payments and investment programs.
This federal investment will help dairy, poultry and egg producers and processors make key investments and improve their operations to be even more competitive and sustainable.
While dairy producers already know how much they will receive next year under the fourth compensation payment for the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) the Government intends to offer them extra funding of up to $1.2 billion over six years under the Dairy Direct Payment Program to account for the impacts of CUSMA.
From 2024 to 2029, the owner of a farm with 80 milking cows may receive compensation through a direct payment of about $106,000 in six yearly instalments on a declining scale. These funds will give producers the flexibility to invest according to their individual needs.
Starting in 2023, the Government intends to invest up to $300 million in a new program to support innovation and investment into large-scale projects to add value to solids-non-fat, a by-product of milk processing. The Government will consult closely with industry stakeholders in the development of program parameters.
For the Canadian poultry and egg producers, the Government intends to provide up to an additional $112 million under the Poultry and Egg On-Farm Investment Program.
Producers will receive payments based on their quota holdings, to support improvements to their farm businesses. This funding will bring the total compensation for this sector to $803 million.
Finally, the federal Government intends to invest up to $105 million in the Supply Management Processing Investment Fund to support investments in dairy, poultry and egg processing plants, to grow their productivity or efficiency through new equipment and automation technologies.
This brings the total investment for processors up to $497.5 million.
These programs will help drive innovation and growth in the supply-managed sectors. With this announcement, the Government of Canada delivers on its commitment to fully and fairly compensate producers and processors who have lost market share under CETA, CPTPP and CUSMA.
The total compensation will reach up to $4.8 billion.
In 2022, there were 9,952 dairy farms in Canada and 4,773 chicken, turkey, egg and broiler hatching egg producers.
The dairy Industry generated $7.39 billion in total net farm cash receipts in 2021.
The four supply-managed poultry and egg sectors (chicken, turkey, eggs, and broiler hatching eggs) generated over $5.5 billion in farm cash receipts in 2021. ■