Canada's Agriculture Minister, Marie-Claude Bibeau, reinforced her commitment to supply management at the Dairy Farmers of Canada AGM in Saskatoon this week.

During her announcement of over $11 million of Government funding for the Dairy Research Cluster Tuesday, July 16, Bibeau touched on the Government's plan to compensate supply managed producers.

The Government included a $3.9 billion compensation package in the 2019 budget, with up to $2.4 billion to sustain the incomes of producers, as well as up to $1.5 billion to protect against any reduction in quota value.

They say they've been working hard with industry working groups to finalize these delivery mechanisms.

This compensation commitment followed the ratification of the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, also known as CETA.

The Government adds, the budget commits to addressing impacts on the processing sector, and potential future impacts of the new NAFTA agreement.

Meantime, Federal Agriculture Critic, Luc Berthold, is calling for action on this compensation plan, saying farmers can't afford to wait any longer.

"Minister of Agriculture Marie-Claude Bibeau promised Canadian milk, egg and poultry farmers that a compensation plan would be in place by June 30th, but the Liberals have blown past their own deadline and failed to deliver any of the $3.9 billion farmers are counting on."

Berthold adds, with the Federal election just months away, the Liberal Government would rather delay compensation for their re-election campaign.

 

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