And it will be there when the next rounds of negotiations for updating CUSMA (Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement) begin in 2026.
Obviously, during a negotiation, you have to know how to give in order to receive better. However, Quebec farmers and rural Quebec have given enough. They did it to safeguard economic interests outside Quebec, because it is a reality: in each free trade negotiation, Canadian prime ministers did not hesitate to put on the altar aspects of trade management. offer (GO) to protect urban and Canadian interests.
As of 2024, the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership), CUSMA and CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) are in full force. By adding the concessions that had already been granted in the past, 18% of milk production is now imported, resulting in annual losses of $1.3 billion for dairy producers (1). This is on average $137,000 less income per year, per dairy farm. And what is emerging on the horizon for the 2026 renegotiation suggests the worst.
Recently, a handful of unelected senators block the adoption of Bill C-282. This bill aims to remove supply management from all free trade negotiations. It was unanimously supported by the elected parliamentarians of the House of Commons. The senators’ blockage is a denial of democracy, yet another Canadian political betrayal of Quebec, a shameful submission to the economic dictates of an urban elite, outside Quebec, which continues to sacrifice farmers and rural Quebec.
But supply management nevertheless benefits everyone.
User-pays
The consumer pays once and it is with the purchase of a dairy product. Without supply management, the consumer would pay twice for their dairy products: via their taxes which would finance the billions in subsidies as well as on the purchase of the product.
Countering the harmful effects of the agricultural exception (2)
Instability and low incomes in agriculture require government interventions. All states do this without exception. Their ability to feed their population is at stake. In Quebec and Canada, supply management was advocated rather than subsidies. Once the point of no return is reached in the amputation of supply management, the infernal and endless spiral of billions in subsidies begins (3). Talk to Australia, New Zealand, the European Union and… the United States!
Vector of territory occupation
With $6.1 billion in GDP and more than 65,000 jobs generated, the dairy sector is an economic force that energizes the countryside too often neglected by public policies and the concerns of our politicians.
It is one thing for a handful of lobbyists disguised as Canadian senators to advance their own agenda, but for a sector, a territory and a nation to be systematically sacrificed for the interests of another is what This is called betrayal.
Now, more than ever before, it is necessary to have a country. Canadian agriculture has always been export-oriented given the omnipresent beef and grain production in Western Canada (4). Production under supply management, largely located in Quebec, will always be sacrificed by Canada which wants to preserve its exporting nature in its trade relations.
A sovereign Quebec would be able to negotiate its own agreements. We don’t have to worry; there are several negotiating levers (energy, lumber, aeronautics, rare materials, etc.) to ensure our presence on the Canadian dairy market and thus allow Quebec dairy production to gradually adapt to the exciting new economic realities that A sovereign Quebec would offer not only agriculture, but all sectors. It is a duty to achieve this, because otherwise we will witness with our hands tied the agony of our countryside and our Quebec agriculture which we want to be local, humane and prosperous.
Joel Chassé
Agroeconomist and dairy producer
1 – Commercial agreements, Les Producteurs de lait du Québec, Online: https://lait.org/medias/nos-enjeux/ententes-commerciales/
2 – GOUIN, Daniel-Mercier. Supply management in the dairy sector, a still relevant mode of regulation, Research Group in Agricultural Economics and Policy (GREPA), Department of Agri-Food Economics and Consumer Sciences, Laval University, Quebec, 2004, 124 p.
3 – Gouin, D. and Kroll, J. (2018). Dairy regulation in the face of market volatility – United States, New -n° 364(2), 13 Rural economy, Zealand, Canada, France, SwitzerlandZ30. https://doi.org/10.4000/economierurale.5488.
4 – Gouin, DM (2010). Duality of Canadian agriculture, specificity of Quebec agricultural policy. Agriculture and peasantry of the world, 213-231.
