A cow at a dairy farm in Saguenay, Que., on Jan. 23. Bill C-282 has split Canada’s agriculture community, with dairy and poultry farmers on one side and beef and grain producers on the other.Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press
Proposed legislation that has divided Canadian farmers and spooked trade experts is facing renewed scrutiny in the Senate, where critics have warned it could weaken Canada’s hand ahead of crucial trade negotiations with the United States.
The private member’s bill from the Bloc Québécois, which would prevent the government from offering more foreign access to Canada’s supply-managed farm sector in future trade negotiations, passed in the House of Commons last year with support from all parties.
After languishing for more than a year, Bill C-282 is now being reviewed by the Senate Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committee, where it has been met with a mix of skepticism and hostility.
Supporters of the bill say it simply formalizes a long-standing government commitment to protect Canada’s dairy, egg and poultry industries in trade deals and prevents the supply-management system – which sets production quotas and prices – from being used as a bargaining chip.
Critics say it constrains Canada’s room to manoeuvre in trade negotiations, sacrifices the interests of exporters across the country to a small number of farmers in Quebec and Ontario and waves a red flag in front of the Americans ahead of the 2026 renegotiation of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
“If we pass this legislation now, it’s like slapping the Americans in the face,” said John Weekes, a former Canadian ambassador to the World Trade Organization and the chief negotiator for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the 1990s.
“And frankly, I think it would ensure that this would be a top American demand in the renegotiations” of CUSMA, he said in an interview.
The bill has split Canada’s agriculture community, with dairy and poultry farmers on one side and beef and grain producers on the other.
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Lobbyists for supply-managed sectors say the legislation is necessary to ensure the stability and quality of Canada’s food supply and the livelihood of farmers. Representatives for the more export-oriented beef and grain industries worry that Canadian products could lose out in foreign markets if Canada shows no willingness to compromise on dairy, poultry and eggs.
The Senate committee hearing, which kicked off two weeks ago, has gained an unexpected prominence thanks to political gamesmanship in the House of Commons. Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet has threatened to bring down the Liberal minority government if Bill C-282 and a separate bill increasing Old Age Security payments don’t pass by the end of October.
Senators have pushed back, saying they intend to take as much time as needed to study the legislation – with some accusing the House of rushing the bill through without sufficient debate to score political points in Quebec. The Senate committee has held two hearings and scheduled two more for next week. Several senators say they expect six to eight more sessions, which would likely extend past the Bloc’s deadline and into next year.
“We are all of course aware of Mr. Blanchet’s comments,” Senator Marty Deacon, who sits on the committee, said in a statement. “But ultimately we must conduct a thorough examination of legislation that comes our way. This includes Bill C-282, which, as we have already heard in testimony, would do something that has no real comparison internationally.”
Since supply management was introduced in the 1970s, the federal government has largely kept foreign eggs, milk, cheese and poultry out of the country, despite a broader push to lower trade barriers and ongoing complaints from trade partners.
However, the past three major trade deals – CUSMA, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the deal with the European Union – have seen Canada make some concessions in supply-managed sectors, such as expanding tariff rate quotas. These determine the amount of a product that can be imported into Canada tariff-free or at a low tariff rate. Beyond the quota, tariffs are prohibitively high, effectively capping imports.
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The main lobby groups for chicken and dairy farmers estimate this foreign access now equals around 11 per cent of Canada’s poultry production and 18 per cent of the country’s dairy production.
Supply-managed farmers were compensated by the federal government for the loss of their quotas to the tune of nearly $5-billion. But their lobby groups want to make any further loss of market share to foreign competition legally impossible with the passage of Bill C-282.
“Not wanting additional access does not mean we want to restrict export commodities’ ability to trade. It just means supply management can be left out of those discussions and no longer be used as trade currency,” Tim Klompmaker, chair of the Chicken Farmers of Canada, told the Senate committee last week.
Lobbyists for export-oriented farm industries aren’t convinced.
“You’re basically holding the broader trading economy hostage to the needs of a very small group,” said Michael Harvey, executive director of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance, in an interview.
Other business groups, which stayed out of the debate during the bill’s passage in the House, are starting to take sides. Goldy Hyder, CEO of the Business Council of Canada, published a letter Friday arguing against the bill and warning that it could undermine Canada’s commitments under existing trade agreements.
The kind of legal carve-out proposed in Bill C-282 would be unprecedented both in Canada and internationally.
Canada is already struggling to conclude a trade deal with the United Kingdom, which has stalled, in large part, owing to disagreements about cheese quotas. And it is entering a delicate period in its relationship with the United States, given the upcoming renegotiation of CUSMA in 2026 and the possible return of Donald Trump, a trade skeptic, to the White House.
Doug Forsyth, director-general for the market access and trade controls bureau at Global Affairs Canada, said access to Canada’s dairy and poultry markets was a major U.S. goal in the last CUSMA negotiations, which ended in 2018. He told the committee that concessions on supply management were only offered when it was “deemed necessary” to reach a deal with the Americans, which was “an existential outcome for the Canadian economy.”
“Honestly, all of our trading partners are watching. They’re watching what this bill looks like, how it has moved through the House, and now it’s in the Senate. I don’t know how the U.S. will react to it, but I can’t imagine that it would be positive,” Mr. Forsyth said.
The bill may face a tough slog going forward. Senators Peter Boehm and Peter Harder – the chair and vice-chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee and both former deputy ministers – have already said they won’t support the bill. Other committee members sounded skeptical, although some did speak in favour of the bill.
Senator Clément Gignac, who is not on the committee, said in an interview that it’s unlikely the Senate would support the bill if the committee recommends against it. Although he said the vote could divide along regional lines, with senators from Quebec and parts of Ontario voting for it and senators from other provinces voting against it. The Senate could also amend the bill and send it back to the House.
Before it gets to a vote, the bill still needs to go through a series of committee hearings. And here, senators appear keen to do their due diligence, regardless of pressure from the government or the Bloc to move quickly.
“This is a squabble among parties in the House. It’s a squabble that they are trying to drag us into. But we are not party to it,” committee member Senator Yuen Pau Woo said in an interview. “If you pardon the pun, we shouldn’t be cowed by these threats and ultimatums because we don’t have a cow in this fight. It’s their cows.”