Family of dairy farmers nervously watch NAFTA talks
STE-MARIE-MADELEINE It seems more than a little absurd that a backroom meeting in Washington, D.C., could decide the fate of JeanPhilippe Jodin’s family farm some 972 kilometres north.
Jodin’s ancestors settled in the lowlands east of Montreal in the late 1800s, getting by on grain, livestock and the pillar of Quebec’s agricultural sector: dairy.
Five generations later, Jodin and his cousin run the very same farm on a plot of land that sprawls into a chain of tall green hills in the St. Lawrence Valley.
Last year, the cousins took out a $2-million loan to mechanize the milking process for up to 200 cows.
But now, stalling trade talks in the American capital are causing him to second-guess that investment. If the United States successfully renegotiates the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, it could do away with supply management in Quebec.
That economic policy serves as the foundation for agriculture in Quebec, bolstering 5,000 dairy farmers and some 117,000 jobs across the province.
“We made our business plan with supply management in mind,” Jodin said. “If the markets open up, it would be worse than going to the casino. It would be like the casino changing the rules after you roll the dice.”
The system of quotas and stateregulated prices on dairy products means Quebecers pay higher-thanmarket prices for milk and cheese. Critics compare it to a cartel that fixes prices and fleeces customers.
But the trade-off is support for an industry roughly the size of Ontario’s automotive sector.
Though the United States doesn’t practise supply management, it supports farmers through direct subsidies. A new NAFTA deal could possibly open Quebec farmers to more foreign competition.
In Jodin’s case, the family farm represents the sum total of his family’s footprint in southeast Quebec. It isn’t much; aside from the cousins, there is one farmhand and sometimes Jodin’s dad comes by to lend a hand.
On the whole, prior agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and European Union trade deal have helped the autoworkers in Ontario, but they’ve chipped away at Quebec’s dairy farmers.
Jodin’s decision to increase production was motivated, in part, by a way to offset losses incurred by those deals. His father, Jocelyn, said he’s “very worried” that the era of supply management might be coming to an end.
“We’re just farmers, we’ll keep our heads down and keep working, but yes we have a lot riding (on these negotiations,)” Jocelyn said. “It’s our revenue, it’s what keeps us going, it has been our way of life for over 100 years.”
Representatives from Quebec’s four major parties presented a united front at a farmer lobby’s meeting in Longueuil on Friday, saying none would sign off on a trade deal that hurts the province’s farmers.
After the latest in a terse round of negotiations between Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and her American counterpart Friday, talks on a new deal were tabled until next week.
Parti Québécois Leader JeanFrançois Lisée spent much of last week calling on his rivals to show up at the Longueuil meeting. In the end, constant pressure from the PQ chief was enough to get Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard and Québec solidaire leader Manon Massé to join him on the South Shore.
Lisée further milked the issue Friday, visiting Jodin’s farm and claiming the NAFTA breakdown is an example of how federalism is failing Quebec.
“(Ontario) won without even fighting,” Lisée said. “I’m glad for them and that’s great. They already have this win. The only debate in Quebec isn’t if we’re going to win anything, it’s about what we’re going to lose.”
He wagers that a failure at the NAFTA negotiations to protect supply management will push more Quebecers into the arms of sovereignists.
“If we were at the table, we could walk away from a bad deal with (U.S. President) Donald Trump,” Lisée said. “Whereas here, we’re going to have to fight our battles inside Canada to try to mitigate a bad deal for us.
“I’d rather be an independent country fighting our fights — in partnership with our neighbours in Canada — than lose at this deal and have no say in it.”
For Jodin, it’s less about Quebec and Canada than the survival of his family’s legacy. “If it keeps going like this, we’ll have to cut somewhere, and there’s not much to cut,” he said. “I believe our politicians will hold firm. I have to.”