New measures for farmers

New measures for farmers

The federal government has announced an investment of more than $ 252 million to support farmers, food businesses and food processors during the COVID-19 crisis.

When the Canadian Federation of Agriculture called for ten times more aid, $ 2.6 billion, the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, indicated that other measures are coming to help the agrifood industry.

During his daily press briefing, Mr. Trudeau gave details of the amounts announced by his government. An emergency treatment fund of $ 77.5 million will first be invested in food processing plants, in order to finance the protection of workers by adapting, among other things, their facilities.

Ottawa is also planning to extend the Canadian Dairy Commission’s line of credit to increase its dairy storage capacity and is injecting $ 125 million to support livestock and pork producers.

For the dairy sector, the government intends to propose adding $ 200 million to the sector’s borrowing capacity. The Prime Minister explained that this amount will be used to support the costs of temporarily storing cheese and butter to avoid food waste.

A sum of $ 50 million will be allocated to buy back food that risks being thrown away for redistribution to food banks across the country.