Pontiac farmers and others involved in local food production gathered at the Little Red Wagon Winery on Friday afternoon for a three-hour discussion about the future of Canada’s agricultural industry.
The discussion was facilitated by Pontiac-Kitigan Zibi MP Sophie Chatel as part of the nationwide consultations underway with farmers about what needs to be prioritized in the federal government’s next agricultural policy framework. This framework will serve as the main federal, provincial and territorial strategy for supporting Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sector from 2028-2033.
The conversation was co-hosted by Tyler McCann, director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute, and Stéphane Alary, president of the Outaouais-Laurentides chapter of the Union des Producteurs Agricoles (UPA).
The meeting was held under Chatham House Rule, meaning participants could not be quoted directly unless they gave explicit permission.
The first question put to the room asked what the biggest risks are to the industry at this moment, and what kind of government support could help manage these risks.
Feedback shared included concerns about the aging demographic of farmers, many of whom don’t have people to replace them; challenges around succession, including the financial toll of the capital gains tax when a farm is passed down to the next generation; challenges around access to low-interest capital needed for any farm development projects, including purchasing land; the importance of access to the Ontario market for selling local agricultural products; the need for investment in focused, outcome-driven agricultural research; and rising input costs, particularly in light of the Iran war.
In a follow-up interview, Chatel highlighted two priorities she heard come out of this conversation.
“Two main things that were discussed that I think are very good areas for the government to work on are increasing the capital gains exemption to take into consideration the fact that agricultural land has gone up significantly,” she said.
“But another one I think is even more critical is giving young farmers access to capital, because again the price of land has increased significantly, and it’s very hard for a young farmer that wants to start farming to buy a farm.”
The second half of the discussion focused on what kind of policies or support should be built into the National Food Security Strategy that the federal government is now in the final stages of drafting.
“How do we help Canadians have access to food that is affordable, and how do we reinforce the supply chain so that we have more affordable food?” asked Chatel, prompting conversation.
In response, McCann said he was pleased to see the Prime Minister commit to a National Food Security Strategy in February.
“There’s this potential to look at food security from our own supply issues, our own value-added and processing issues, and I think we’re all waiting to see how far the government is going to go, and how much of it will be grounded in addressing food processing, addressing supply chain issues, addressing critical inputs like fertilizer,” he said.
“We’re all very eager with high hopes and expectations for this to be something that goes beyond what the policy framework does, and really has the federal government planting a stake where agriculture and food is a strategic asset.”
Part of this discussion focused on the need to change the language used to talk about food affordability to challenge the belief that locally produced food is unaffordable and educate consumers about the real cost of food, with the goal of shifting the amount consumers are willing to spend on food.
Another part of the discussion focused on the need for local transformation facilities, such as the much anticipated abattoir, and regional markets where producers can get their products to consumers efficiently and at low cost to the producer – both key components to a food economy that is less dependent on trade.
But this conversation also came back to the need to support farmers in ensuring proper succession of ownership, and such that succession doesn’t bankrupt the next generation when it comes time to pay the capital gains tax. As one participant expressed it, if the government doesn’t look at how to keep people on the land, forget about writing agricultural policies.
Dairy farmer Justin Alary of Luskville’s Ferme Stépido is the second generation to run the farm. He said he feels it’s important to participate in consultations like these to ensure the survival of Canada’s shrinking agricultural industry.
“We need to voice our opinions, and we’re not that many producers when you look at it. If no producers go, they’re going to tell us what to do,” he said. “Everything [raised in the meeting] was important, because it impacts every level of production – big, small, vegetables, beef, grain, whatever, so everything was important.”
