Quebec and Ontario dairy farmers will return to Parliament Hill with their tractors and cows on Thursday to hold another rally demanding stricter controls on cross-border trade and compensation for international agreements they say have left them at a disadvantage.
St. Albert dairy farmer Jasmin Benoit said the government must «mitigate and compensate» farmers as the Trans-Pacific and European trade agreements threaten their livelihoods at a time when they’re already losing out on investments.
Farmers are also protesting diafiltered milk — a powdered protein product that enters Canada tariff-free from the United States because it is not considered to be real milk.
«The government is well aware of these issues,» Benoit said, adding that he is losing about $5,000 per month.
A similar protest that saw cows and tractors crowd downtown Ottawa streets took place in September 2015.
The uncertainty in the industry has made farmers more cautious when considering investments, Benoit said.
The convoy will include tractors, milk trucks and cows, and will make its way from Vankleek Hill, Ont., to Parliament Hill via Bank Street.
Another convoy of dairy farmers from Quebec passed though Montreal on Wednesday en route to Montebello.
The Quebec convoy is expected to leave Montebello at 7 a.m., on Thursday, making its way to Jacques-Cartier Park in Gatineau by 10:30 a.m. After a two-hour rally in the park, the convoy is expected to cross the MacDonald-Cartier Bridge en route to Parliament Hill for a 1 p.m. arrival.
The former Conservative government negotiated a $4.3-billion deal with Canadian farm groups before the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement was announced last October but it was not approved by the Treasury Board before the election that brought in a new Liberal government.
The compensation package was meant to mitigate not just the TPP, but also the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA).
Source: CBC