Farmers rally on The Hill has support from Prescott-Russell
Local farmers joined counterparts from Quebec and elsewhere, Thursday morning, for a gathering at Parliament Hill. They met with their Québec counterparts for a protest rally against international trade policies that they claim threaten their livelihood.
The June 2 gathering was the second farmers’ protest rally on The Hill, aimed at both creating greater public awareness of the problems farmers face against international competition for the home market, and also pressing the new Liberal government to protect Canada’s dairy industry against dumping of American milk products into the home marketplace through trade agreement loopholes.
“To Justin Trudeau: Put on your boxing gloves and defend us from the U.S.A. and support your Canadian farmers,” stated Chris Ryan, a St-Isidore dairy farmer, during interviews with regional and national media.
Ryan and other dairy farmers in both Eastern Ontario and Western Québec are pressing for tougher policies on cross-border trade, including a halt to imports of diafiltered milk.
Diafiltered milk is a powdered protein product used in making cheese and other dairy products. Imports from the U.S. are allowed in duty-free because they are not considered “real milk” under the terms of the current Canada-U.S. trade agreements.
Glengarry-Prescott-Russell Liberal MP Francis Drouin spent more than an hour talking with local farmers at the rally before he had to go inside for Question Period. During a later phone interview, Drouin reaffirmed his election campaign promise of support for the supply management policy meant to protect Canadian agriculture against un- MP Francis Drouin talks with some of the farmers, from his own Glengarry-Prescott-Russell riding and other parts of Eastern Ontario, who drove their tractors to Ottawa, on June 2, to join their Québec counterparts in the most recent farmers’ rally on Parliament Hill, to lobby for protection of Canadian farm products against foreign imports. fair competition. He noted that the farming sector needs to keep reminding the federal government of its concerns.
“If we don’t keep the (lobby) pressure on,” said Drouin, “then it’s another lobby sector which will keep pressure on.”
The MP also noted that while diafiltered milk imports are legal under the terms of the current trade agreements, the Canadian dairy industry could compete better against the U.S. imports if it received help with upgrading aging equipment.
“That’s what I’m fighting for,” Drouin said, “to get the processing money.”
Mayors of rural municipalities in Prescott-Russell expressed support for farmers who took part in last week’s rally and also for all farmers in their areas, working in the produce or dairy sectors. “I support local farmers,” said Mayor François St-Amour of The Nation Municipality, adding that the U.S. dairy industry should respect its Canadian counterpart.
“It’s tougher and tougher for farmers, for all their efforts, to get fair prices,” said Mayor Gary Barton of Champlain Township, which includes the Vankleek Hill area. “I don’t think we should be opening our borders to let anyone ship milk here.”
“The agricultural policies are ruining the rural areas,” said Mayor Robert Kirby of East Hawkesbury Township, himself a working farmer with a mixed dairy/cash crop operation. “There are no more incentives. We’re all losing money. If Canadians want their farmers to survive, they’d better look at the situation pretty quickly.”
“I think the government should be very careful about what they do,” said Mayor Guy Desjardins of Clarence-Rockland. “We’ve got a top-quality product and I don’t see why the government is playing around with that.”