Farmers’ demonstration in Montérégie | “We have our helmet full”

After Rimouski, Alma and La Malbaie, hundreds of tractors paraded in convoy through the streets of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu on Friday. At the heart of the farmers’ fed-up: the difficulty of making ends meet, the extent of the paperwork required by the government and the unequal competition with products from abroad which are not subject to the same social and environmental.

“We are full of it,” declared Jérémie Letellier, president of the Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA) of Montérégie during a speech.

“What is happening here in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu is not an end, it is a beginning. Demonstrations like today will take place everywhere in the country over the coming weeks […] And if, despite everything, we are not able to make ourselves understood in the coming weeks, we will go to Quebec to make ourselves understood,” he warned.

This demonstration comes a week after Quebec Premier François Legault admitted that there is currently a “crisis” in agriculture.

The year 2023 has been very difficult for farmers: the pork industry is going through an unprecedented storm, market gardeners are struggling to recover from flooding in their fields and hay producers in Abitibi have been afflicted by a drought.

Despite historic compensation in crop insurance, producer associations estimate that their members have been compensated far below their actual losses.

The rise in interest rates and the rise in the price of inputs such as fertilizers and fuels also hurt producers.

“We seem to have reached the point that if the government hears us, it does not seem to understand us,” declared Stéphanie Levasseur, second vice-president of the UPA.

“Even people in government eat three times a day and they often seem to forget that it’s because of us. We need a business environment that allows us to grow, be resilient and adapt to climate change. All this, without having to spend 40 hours a week in the office completing paperwork on top of our tasks in the field,” she added.

“National Conversation”

Several politicians took part in the rally following the tractor parade. Deputy Prime Minister Geneviève Guilbault took the stage to address the audience of producers. She noted that she canceled a planned announcement in the region at the last minute to attend the rally.

“The mobilization which is being organized here today, and which has taken place in other regions in other weeks, we salute it. We completely understand that we need to have what I would call a national conversation on this area, which yes, is an economic sector, but which is literally a sector of identity for us in Quebec. Food autonomy, the agricultural sector, it brings us back to our identity as a nation, it brings us back to our land so it is important for us to be here, to come and listen,” she explained during the a press scrum.

The co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois and the Liberal MP André Fortin also took the microphone.

In the crowd, several farmers surveyed said they had difficulty digesting the fact that their income was falling while the big brands were making record profits. Others said they were worried about the future of the next generation.

“My son studies agriculture and they have trouble getting registrations. Young people are discouraged by the bureaucratic burden and by the profession which is becoming less and less attractive economically and socially,” said producer Werner Van Hyfte.

“When you see your father who is not coping, it does not tempt you to continue in this, when it is days that no longer end every day without stopping, it does not tempt you to resume the farm and go and invest in it so that at the end of the day you will have a livelihood that is not worth it,” added his son Denis.

“It becomes a vocation, it’s certain that we don’t do it for the money,” added his father.