BILLIONS SET ASIDE TO BOOST FARMERS

OTTAWA • Billions of dollars will be used to compensate dairy, egg and poultry farmers hurt by canada’s recent free-trade agreements — industries concentrated in voterich Quebec and Ontario.

The $3.65 billion the government is setting aside includes $2.15 billion to help farmers who lose income because of trade deals with europe and countries on the Pacific rim, both of which make it easier for foreign egg, dairy and poultry producers to enter the canadian market.

That is in addition to a $250-million, five-year fund established in 2016 to compensate dairy farmers for the european Union deal.

The budget earmarks $1.5 billion for farmers who lose money when they sell their production rights in the supply-management system, which limits egg, poultry and dairy production in canada. To gain the right to sell supply-managed products, farmers have to buy “quota,” often from existing producers who want to leave the industry.

The system also limits foreign products by slapping steep tariffs on imports beyond a certain level, which raises their price at the grocery store and makes them less attractive to consumers. Allowing more foreign-produced food into the canadian market will increase competition for products from canadian farmers.

“To ensure that canada’s dairy, poultry and egg farmers can continue to provide canadians with high-quality products in a world of freer trade, we will make available an income protection program for supply-managed farmers, along with a measure to protect the value of quota investments these farmers have already made,” Finance Minister Bill Morneau said in his prepared budget speech.

The budget does not provide details on how or when the money will be distributed to farmers and producers, who have long railed against any move that would expand foreign involvement in those sectors.

But the government appears to be hoping the promise of compensation will provide a salve to supply-managed farmers, many of whom are clumped in key ridings in Quebec and Ontario and angry that the deals have weakened their grip on the market.

That could prove important for the Liberals, who will likely need a strong showing in the two provinces in this year’s federal election to have a hope of retaining power.

The budget also indicates more money could be forthcoming as the government works with industry “to address the impacts on processing, as well as potential future impacts of the canada-United States-Mexico Agreement.”

The North American deal, which will succeed NAFTA, has yet to be ratified and come into effect. That deal is the third free-trade agreement in which canada agreed to open its supply-managed sectors.