From Gatineau to Vaudreuil-Soulanges, and St. Jean sur Richelieu to Ste. Marie de Beauce, farmers have been demonstrating in the streets across the province.
Convoys of tractors – from modest machines to the largest John Deeres on the market – have been parading from town to town and heading to urban centres. And it is going to continue, as agricultural producers sound the alarm: it’s not going well down on the farm.
“There has to be change,” said Martin Caron, president of the Union des producteurs agricoles, in an interview on April 10 as about 200 farmers filled the parking lot in front of the Walmart store in Vaudreuil-Dorion with farm vehicles. “It makes no sense.”
A convoy of just over 100 tractors had made its way from the small farming community of St. Clet in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region, west of Montreal near the Ontario border, that day before heading to Vaudreuil-Dorion, one of the fastest growing towns in western Quebec.
Caron was there to greet them – as he hop-scotches his away from region to region attending one farmers’ protest after the other.
Commenting on the provincial government’s lack of support for farmers in all corners of the province, Caron is sending out a clarion call: Farmers in Quebec are facing an unprecedented perfect storm of financial pressures.
PROTESTS: Sending a message to CAQ, consumers
With high interest rates, increasing fuel and fertilizer costs, drops in harvests due to severe weather events triggered by climate change that range from periods of drought to heavy rains and windstorms – often all in the same season – and the increasing bureaucratic burden being imposed on agricultural producers by expanding environmental regulations and reporting requirements, farmers are being squeezed on all sides.
According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, farm revenues in Quebec in 2023 dropped almost by half – 49.2 per cent – and are projected to drop again this year – by a whopping 86.5 per cent.
While revenues are spiralling, inflation-fuelled costs are rising rapidly – with everything from fuel costs to seed and fertilizer prices seeing unprecedented upticks.
The economics of farming is pushing farmers further and further in debt, Caron said. In fact, according to the UPA, the total debt in Quebec’s agricultural sector has catapulted by 444 per cent in the last 25 years, from 1997 to 2022.
And this is all happening in front of a backdrop of rapidly increasing prices for farmland and growing environmental guidelines that are forcing farmers to shoulder a greater bureaucratic burden, saddling them with the paperwork that comes with demonstrating they are meeting the new regulatory requirements.
It is all putting the future of farming in Quebec in serious jeopardy, the UPA says. And threatening the ability of the next generation of farmers to survive in the sector.
Farmers need help, and they are taking to the streets as they call on the provincial government to help them weather the crisis.
The demonstrations that saw farmers rally in Rimouski and Baie Comeau in March have picked up steam in early April, where convoys of tractors were organized in the Saguenay-Lac St. Jean region.
More than 225 farm vehicles formed a procession in St. Jean sur Richelieu earlier this month, parading in front of the offices of MNAs and alerting the public to their plight.
In Vaudreuil-Soulanges, the demonstration attracted the attention of Conservative leader Éric Duhaime, who attended the farmers’ rally. Even Liberal party leader hopeful Denis Coderre showed up.
Farmers formed a procession from Lachute to Laval, rallied in front of the casino in Gatineau. They drove their vehicles to Mont Laurier and through the streets of Drummondville. They hit the roads in Gaspé and Ste. Marie in the Chaudière-Appalaches region.
Tractors paraded through Coaticook and Val St. François in the Eastern Townships and as far north as Abitibi-Témiscamingue.
More demonstrations are planned in May in Trois Rivières and beyond.
The UPA had pleaded with the CAQ government to increase funding for relief programs that would help producers struggling under the burden of high interest rates and increasing operating costs, but the latest provincial budget failed to deliver, Caron said.
As young farmers who took to the microphone during the demonstration in Vaudreuil-Dorion pointed out, the Legault government can find money for car-battery manufacturers, but are ignoring farmers.
In March, the provincial budget provided $1.251 billion to its Ministry of Agriculture, a figure that represents less than 1 per cent of the government’s overall spending.
Caron said farmers are fed up with the government simply claiming to be hearing what farmers are saying. They want the government to show that they understand the financial burdens they are dealing with and take action
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