REGINA — The Liberal Party today released its agriculture platform, promising to protect the sector in the face of American tariffs and keep supply management off the table in trade talks with the U.S.
“Canada’s dairy sector is off the table in any negotiations with president Trump,” said leader Mark Carney in a news release. “From defending supply management to investing more and cutting red tape, my new government will ensure Canadian farmers, ranchers and agrifood workers have what they need to be protected and ensure they can get food from Canadian farms to Canadian plates.”
Aside from the commitment to supply-managed sectors the Liberals are promising to make the $6-million cap for AgriStability payments, announced just before the writ drop, permanent, build more domestic processing capacity, including for food in rural and remote areas, with a new $200-million fund and add $30 million to the AgriMarketing program.
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A new Liberal government would add $30 million to the Agriculture Clean Technology Program, which is available to help farmers and ranchers buy more efficient equipment, and expand the terms to 20 years and double the loan guarantee limit of the Canadian Agricultural Loans Act from $500,000 to $1 million.
Other planks include working with the Canada School Food Program and provinces to prioritize purchasing Canadian food products as much as possible and working with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to ensure mutual recognition of food safety standards with reliable trading partners to cut red tape.
More to come.
Contact karen.briere@producer.com
