10 Better Farming | November 2024 Follow us on @BetterFarmingON Parliament hill Report MPs returned to Ottawa recently to begin the fall session of Parliament, with a decided shift in the dynamics of the House of Commons. The carbon tax, cost of living and other topics are expected to be hot-button issues in the House, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues to lead an unstable minority government. But where could ag fit into the equation? For that answer, Better Farming recently connected with Tyler McCann, managing director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute. An issue with implications for the Canadian ag sector is the newest dispute with China. The Chinese government recently launched an anti-dumping investigation into imports of Canadian canola from 2023, alleging Canada is dumping canola into China, sending its domestic prices down. This situation with China should have federal ministers looking ahead, McCann said. “It should really send the signal that government needs to be thinking about what to do next, the available tools and how to deal with these situations,” he told Better Farming. This could be an opportunity for Trade Minister Mary Ng’s office to do some work on market diversification. However, McCann said that no market can make up for China’s purchases. “Having more customers is always a good thing, but there’s no other customer like China. They buy so much of what the world produces, that you can’t just go and find a market to replace that.” he said. To put China’s Canadian canola imports into context, in 2023, it imported about 4.6 million metric tonnes of Canadian canola seed. According to StatCan, Japan had the second-highest import volume of Canadian canola seed that year with just over 1 million metric tonnes. At home, there could be opportunities for federal Minister of Agriculture Lawrence MacAulay, Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne, and Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault to support Canadian canola producers through biodiesel innovations and other avenues, McCann said. The federal government started a rollout of its national school food program, which could be an opportunity for governments to engage with Canadian farmers to ensure the food comes from local producers. But Canada has some work to do on that front, McCann said. “Countries around the world do a better job of using government procurement to support local agriculture, where we struggle with that here,” he AG ISSUES IN OTTAWA: THE FALL SESSION ‘My hope is that we get more of a mainstream interest during this session.’ By Diego Flammini, Farm Reporter Where do federal politicians stand on the issues facing agriculture in Canada? Marius - stock.adobe.com
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