Brenda O’Farrell
The Advocate

The controversial piece of federal legislation that had been touted to protect Canada’s supply-managed agricultural sectors from being further eroded by trade-deal negotiations looks like it could be returning to the House of Commons after it was amended by the Senate earlier this month.

Senators on the foreign affairs committee amended Bill C-282, by removing its effective ability to shelter the country’s supply-managed agricultural productions like dairy, poultry and eggs from being part of trade-deal talks.

In essence, the amendment removes the prohibitions on new concessions as they would apply to existing trade deals, like the new NAFTA agreement; upcoming expected reviews of current deals, like the planned renegotiation of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico deal in 2026; or any future deal that is already being negotiated, which would include ongoing talks with the United Kingdom, where greater access to Canada’s cheese market is being sought.

Now, if the full Senate accepts the foreign affairs committee’s changes and formally amends the bill, the legislation would be returned to the House of Commons to be reconsidered. This would happen without any firm timeline.

The legislation was first introduced as a private member’s bill by the Bloc Québécois last year, gaining approval by the House of Commons in June 2023.

Last month, it was the focus of broad national attention when Bloc leader François Blanchet added its passage in the Senate to his list of conditions to support the Trudeau Liberals in a future confidence vote. Giving the Liberals an ultimatum, Blanchet accused what he called the “illegitimate” upper chamber of “leading the prime minister around by the nose.”

But all of that has been pushed aside, with the focus now being pulled by the recent re-election of Donald Trump as president in the U.S. Fears of standing up for Canadian farmers during scheduled reviews of trade deals with the U.S. under a Trump administration is being viewed as holding greater risk of triggering an acrimonious trade conflict that could harm other sectors.

“It is not a bill about supply management, but rather about trade policy,” Senator Peter Harder told the committee as he put the amendment forward.

In response, Blanchet criticized the Senate committee, but expressed optimism that the wider Senate would reject the amendment.

“I’m quite confident that the amendment will be beaten and the original version of the bill will be adopted by the Senate and that will be the end of it — not for the sake of any political issue, but for the sake of people who need this feeling of safety for the businesses they manage on a daily basis,” Blanchet told reporters in Ottawa.

In addition to the amendment, the Senate committee added what is termed an observation to the bill, explaining that the change should not be viewed as a lack of support for farmers. Rather, it stated, it “has taken no view on supply management in Canada and has focused its decision on this legislation’s impact on Canada’s crucial trade relationships as an export-oriented nation reliant on trade.”