Agriculture Committee on Sept. 22nd, 2025

[Martin Caron, General President, Union des producteurs agricoles]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would also like to thank the members of the House.

My name is Martin Caron. I'm the general president of the Union des producteurs agricoles, or UPA. I'm a dairy, grain and processing vegetable producer.

The UPA represents 42,000 agricultural producers who operate 29,000 farms across Quebec, in each of our regions and rural areas.

The year 2025 has been marked by a series of shocking statements, suspensions and reversals by the Trump administration, which eventually imposed tariffs on a number of countries. The Canadian agriculture sector was largely exempted thanks to the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, or CUSMA. However, the softwood lumber sector wasn't spared, and it has particularly affected timber producers in private forestry.

On August 5, 2025, Prime Minister Carney unveiled a $1.2‑billion plan to support the forest economy, since tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber recently doubled. However, it should be noted that our private forestry producers don't have access to the planned measures.

The counter tariffs that Ottawa imposed on American goods, including a number of agri-food inputs, have also weighed heavily. The September removal was welcome.

I'd like to take a moment to thank all elected officials for passing Bill C-202 to protect supply management. By passing that bill, Canada has sent a clear message to Canadian producers, the international community and our trading partners, who are also protecting sensitive sectors without hesitation. Just look at the sugar and cotton sectors in the United States or the rice sector in Japan.

Let's talk about the tariffs that China imposed. As Mr. Davison said, canola production in Quebec is much lower than in western Canada and comes mainly from a few regions, namely Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean, Abitibi-Témiscamingue and the Lower St. Lawrence. Canola is suited to our northern regions and provides an option where there is little soy and corn.

In recent years, this crop has been profitable for the three regions I just mentioned. However, the tariffs imposed this year have had a direct impact on seed crops.

China has been imposing a 25% surtax on Canadian pork since March. As Mr. Roy said, this decision weakens the strategic export market and leads to an increased need for support and diversification. Let's not forget that the pork sector was hit hard in 2019.

Canola, like pork, has nothing to do with electric vehicles.

[The Chair, Liberal, Michael Coteau]

Can you wrap it up, sir? Thank you so much.

Again, I apologize that we had to limit your time, but we do appreciate all of your testimony today.

We start the first six-minute round, and we'll go to Mr. Barlow, from the Conservatives.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Thanks, Chair.

Thanks to our witnesses for being so accommodating. I know it's odd having seven or eight of you at one panel, but we want to try to get as many of you in as possible.

I'm going to ask quick questions, and I'm going to ask the witnesses to give me very concise, quick answers, as best you can, so I can make the best use of my time.

To Mr. Roy from the pork council, has the Liberal government given you or found you any additional markets that would replace the Chinese market, which you lost as a result of the tariffs?

[René Roy]

It's impossible to replace the market of China because it's a really specific market and it's a large market for us. We are working hard, but it's really hard to do it because of the type of market they have.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Thank you.

Tyler, on the cattle side, the Prime Minister was in Europe, signing these memoranda. In any of those memoranda, and with the U.K. new free trade agreement, was anything done to get Canadian beef access to the European Union and to the U.K., such as eliminating the carcass wash or the hormone non-tariff trade barriers to give you access to those markets?

[Tyler Fulton]

No. We are still dealing with the same non-tariff barriers that we have struggled with since the signing of CETA.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Thanks.

Greg, you said that, on the pea side, China is a massive market. We've had issues with India. Has the Liberal government found any markets outside of China and India that can replace those markets for Canadian pea producers?

[Greg Cherewyk]

China and India are 81% of Canada's exports of peas. There is simply no replacing either China or India. A 1.5-million tonne export program into China cannot be replaced with any one market in any short period of time.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Thank you.

I just want to bring this to your attention. Some of you may have heard the panel earlier. The government and the officials were talking about how important it is to diversify markets, and they're finding all of these new markets for Canadian agricultural commodities. However, when we asked them to name specific countries, none of them could name any.

As a matter of fact, we asked an Order Paper question, and I want to quote the question exactly:

With regard to government measures to open agricultural markets in Southeast Asia to Canadian products: what is the quantity and dollar value of Canadian agricultural products that the government projects will be exported from Canada for each of the next five years, broken down by product and country?

The response from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada was this: “Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada...does not possess the projected information requested related to Southeast Asia.”

I'm finding it very difficult because the government is talking about how important it is to diversify markets as a result of issues with the United Kingdom, the European Union and China, yet it has no data whatsoever in terms of potential access to new markets. It keeps talking about them, but it's done no work to even give a projection of what potential is there.

To add to that, just a few months ago, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada put out its self-ranking on how it has done over the last three years in advancing trade and policy through negotiations, agreements and discussions. Its goal as a department is 80%. It gave itself a 90% mark on its success rate in advancing trade policy through negotiations, agreements and discussions. I think, given everything we've discussed here today, I don't know anybody who would give themselves a 90% grade.

Maybe I'll start with you, Mr. White. Would you agree with that ranking of a 90% success rate?

[Rick White]

I can't think of it from a canola perspective, no. It doesn't make sense—90% from a canola perspective—no.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Maybe, Rick, I'll stick with you while I have you.

What was the impact of the 2019 canola crisis, when we went through something similar with China? Do you have an idea of what the economic impact of this latest tariff war would be?

[Rick White]

I'll be as quick as I can.

Back in 2019, we lived through that one too, and that wasn't very long ago—six years ago. At that point in time, seed exports to China fell from $2.8 billion in 2018, before the restrictions, to $800 million in the following year, in 2019. Then it came up to $1.4 billion in 2020 and up to $1.8 billion in 2021.

I haven't added all that up for the total economic impact, but the point is that it really sagged in the first year and didn't even get back by two years later. That instance had much less of an impact than we anticipate this one to have. For this one, we're looking at 5.9 million tonnes of demand being locked out of China. If we look at the futures market, we see that it has sagged about $40 per tonne to the farmer. Add on an extra $40 per tonne for the basis on top of that. It's about an $80 per tonne hit right now. For 20 million tonnes, farmers are taking it on the chin for $1.6 billion at this point in time, estimated.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Thanks, Rick.

Chris Davison, would you have similar numbers from your association as well?

[Chris Davison]

Yes, from 2019, over a 17-month period, there was work done at that time that said that the impact in terms of lost sales and lower prices was between about $1.54 billion and $2.3 billion. As Rick alluded to, that was a partial closure of the market, so we saw exports of seed drop between 50% and 70%.

[The Chair, Liberal, Michael Coteau]

Thank you very much.

Thank you to our witnesses.

MP Chatel, you have six minutes.

[Sophie Chatel, Liberal, Pontiac—Kitigan Zibi, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank all our witnesses for being here to discuss a really important topic that affects the entire agricultural sector to varying degrees, but especially our canola, pork and pea producers, as we've heard.

I completely understand what Mr. Cherewyk said. Tariffs are indeed important; they're the main source of concern for our government and for the sector. Tariffs definitely won't replace negotiations. In fact, Canada considers free trade to be a top priority. We're the only G7 country to have a free trade agreement with all the other G7 countries. That shows just how important free trade is for our government and for the country.

I heard that Imperial Oil has a facility in Strathcona that's able to use half of the canola production in Alberta. That's an interesting avenue. Global trade is going through turmoil that's here to stay. This is a very difficult time for all countries in this field.

Can this kind of biofuel production help the sector as part of the solutions for growing the Canadian economy?

I'd like to hear Mr. White's answer.

[Rick White]

Domestic biofuels production in Canada has been a long-standing policy of the canola industry, particularly for farmers. What farmers would like out of that is to see domestic usage of their canola going into a domestic biofuels market as a way to diversify our heavy reliance on export markets. It's a market we can control and it's a market we can develop, but it's not there yet. Even though Imperial Oil has invested, we don't see much happening yet.

We ship our oil and our product around the world, to the U.S., the EU and other jurisdictions that are doing exactly that. They're grinding it up or they're utilizing it as a fuel. We should be doing that in Canada too. As farmers, we want to see it happen, but there are some hiccups.

Maybe Chris Davison from the Canola Council, who's closer to the crushers, can answer in more detail why that's not happening now.

[Sophie Chatel, Liberal, Pontiac—Kitigan Zibi, QC]

Would you like to add anything, Mr. Davison?

[Chris Davison]

Let me build on those comments in terms of the opportunities a domestic biofuels market offers.

We see it as a very important opportunity, as Rick said, for the Canadian canola industry. Since 2022, we've witnessed over $2 billion in industry investment to expand our domestic crush capacity in Canada. A big catalyst for that is the nascent but growing biofuels market in Canada. We see that as an excellent diversification opportunity, as was alluded to.

It means doing more value-added work here in Canada. It means de-risking some of our trade and it means more marketing options for farmers at the farm gate, but these are policy-driven markets. They are subject to changes in policy made by governments, so we need to make sure they are as effective as possible to support a domestic industry.

We want to see that in Canada and have canola as an important feedstock for a domestic biofuels industry here in Canada.

[Sophie Chatel, Liberal, Pontiac—Kitigan Zibi, QC]

Thank you. You certainly have allies on this committee and in the government on this.

Mr. White, you were at the meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss international trade issues with China, among other things. Mr. MacDonald, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, was there. I know that this morning on CBC, Andre Harpe described that meeting as a productive two-way conversation.

Could you talk about how productive it was to have that conversation with our Prime Minister to find a solution to China's tariffs?

[Rick White]

Thanks for the question.

Yes, it was. The Prime Minister called us together because he wanted to hear directly from the canola industry. We really appreciate that. The dialogue was not just talking at us but an actual conversation going back and forth.

I think what we impressed upon everyone in the room, including the agriculture minister and others, was that the gravity of the situation is pretty significant. The longer this goes on, the worse it will get. I think we had a better understanding, and maybe the government had a better understanding, that we have a window of opportunity here to negotiate this thing away. If we can do that, we'll come out pretty quick. I'm talking a few months here—maybe by Christmas. After that, it's going to be more difficult.

Those are the kinds of conversations we had. Diversification and biofuel opportunities, etc., came up. It was a good conversation, but at the same time, we don't know how long this is going to be. Our advice was to be prepared for longer than anticipated. Be ready for the worst and hope for the best. The best would be that we can get this resolved or negotiated away by the Prime Minister with the President of China. This is a political problem and it's going to need a political answer. We got that message across as well.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Michael Coteau]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Perron, you have six minutes.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank the witnesses for giving their valuable time to be with us today.

Mr. Caron, you piqued my curiosity earlier when you talked about the softwood lumber measure that doesn't affect private producers.

Do you have any suggestions for the government on that issue? Couldn't the government adjust that measure accordingly?

[Martin Caron]

Yes, absolutely.

It should be noted that there have been cost increases and five statements since the start of the softwood lumber dispute a few years ago. That represents $10 billion overall, including $2 billion for private forestry producers. Programs were implemented, as was the case, but private forestry producers aren't feeling the effects because they don't receive subsidies for their softwood lumber or forests. They can't get financial support, but they're still penalized. The tariffs are now at 35%, which is having a major impact on the sector. We're also seeing a decrease in demand in the private forest sector.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Okay. Thank you. We'll take good note of that.

Speaking of programs that don't affect all sectors, financial support has been increased, particularly for canola. We're very pleased with this decision. I think it was justified. Canola farmers will obviously tell us that it still isn't enough. I think we already know the answer.

Mr. Caron, are there any specific productions? I don't know if you were here for the first hour of the meeting. I asked the deputy minister some questions, including about beef producers, who said they would also have liked to benefit from an increase in financial support under the advance payments program.

Can you tell us what Quebec's agricultural sector needs right now in terms of federal financial support?