The Legault government avoids describing the difficulties currently facing farmers in Quebec as a crisis.
In a press scrum Thursday morning at the National Assembly, the Minister of Agriculture, André Lamontagne, spoke of “great turbulence”, but refused to speak of a crisis.
Faced with a disastrous drop in income and extreme weather events, farmers have expressed their frustration during protests in recent weeks.
The opposition relayed in the House the dismay of producers and the pessimism of the next generation of farmers.
La Financière agricole du Québec, in a way the insurer of farmers’ production, will pay $1 billion to compensate for producers’ 2023 losses, revealed The Press THURSDAY.
“When things are bad, it works, and when things are very bad, it works,” argued Mr. Lamontagne, to argue that an “ecosystem” was already in place to help farmers in difficulty.
Asked twice whether the agricultural world was in crisis, he mentioned the “really difficult” weather in 2023, the “difficult” interest rates, as well as the “supply shocks” during the pandemic, but in avoiding stating that we had passed the crisis stage.
“The agricultural sector is experiencing great turbulence,” he first responded.
“These are difficult times, there have been difficult times in the past and we will get through it. »