By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
As Quebecers came to grips with the announcements contained in the latest provincial budget, tabled March 25 by finance minister Eric Girard, representatives of several sectors, including arts and culture and community health, the union representing the province’s farmers said its members were disappointed and worried by allocations in the budget which failed to address their concerns amid threats posed by climate change and uncertainty around cross-border trade and the wider economy.
The Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) “acknowledges the amounts allocated to the continuation of the Sustainable Agriculture Plan 2020-2030 ($100 million over five years), to the implementation of the Quebec Biofood Policy 2025-2035 ($60.3 million over five years) and to the financing of the Sustainable Growth Investment Program ($42 million over five years), while pointing out that they are well below the expectations and concerns of the community,” a UPA statement said.
“Agricultural and forestry businesses will be among the hardest hit by the U.S. president’s tariffs. This threat adds to the difficulties thousands of them have experienced in recent years. The government’s response, which also reduces the overall budget of the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food by 1.7 per cent (from $1,303 million to $1,281 million), will be met with a lukewarm reception,” declared UPA national president Martin Caron.
UPA representatives also criticized Girard’s decisions to table a budget with a record $13.6-billion deficit, and to plan for the impact of U.S. tariffs of an average of 10 per cent rather than 25 per cent.
Christian Kaeser is a dairy farmer based in Saint-Herménégilde, a border community east of Coaticook. He is the UPA regional vice president for Estrie.
He said “nothing in the budget” would help farmers respond to the impact of tariffs, adding that he found Girard’s tariff projection overly optimistic. “Ten per cent is not going to happen.”
Kaeser called on the Legault government to return a larger share of provincial carbon market revenues to Quebec farmers to make it easier to invest in climate change mitigation efforts and scale up productivity. “We have a lot of ambition to grow and export more and feed more Canadians and depend less on food imports. A lot of investment is needed for innovation, productivity, [responding to] new animal welfare rules and climate change and doing better for the environment. This is lightyears away from what we asked for.”
“Seventy-two per cent of our farm exports are to the United States right now,” he added, noting that fluctuating prices and interest rates are also expected to negatively impact farm revenue. “Both [the provincial and federal governments] need to reassure farmers that they will be there for them.”