Thirty years ago at a Canada Grains Council meeting in Montreal, Quebec agriculture minister Jean Garon startled his mainly English Canadian audience with a bold policy announcement. The province’s new separatist government would crank up agriculture support and development to increase food self-sufficiency so that some day farmers could meet the needs of an independent Quebec.
He was true to his word. Public money flowed and the most farmer-friendly farm policy in Canada was created. Successor ministers, even if they did not support separation, embraced and built on the policy.
This year, the provincial Liberal government is giving that policy its most thorough public review in three decades.
In this special report, Ottawa-based reporter Barry Wilson examines a Quebec farm policy model that is envied by many farmers across Canada.
