NFU Response to Federal Cabinet Mandate Letter
On June 13, 2025, The NFU sent the following letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney, the Hon. Rob Black (Senator), the Hon. Heath MacDonald (Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food), and the Hon. Buckley Belanger (Secretary of State (Rural Development).
Dear Prime Minister Carney,
Re: NFU Response to Cabinet Mandate Letter
Last month, the Prime Minister of Canada published a single mandate letter for the federal cabinet. The National Farmers Union (NFU) is concerned that the cabinet mandate contains no reference to strengthening Canada’s food and agriculture policy, even though food sovereignty is extremely important to Canadians, as evidenced by recent purchasing trends at food purveyors across the country. Food sovereignty is not merely ensuring Canadians have enough food, but also encompasses the right of peoples and nations to define their own food systems, to prioritize local production, sustainability, and community well-being.
The NFU agrees that “Canada faces a series of crises” but it is troubling that the crises facing farmers, agri-food workers and our entire food supply chain have been overlooked. These crises include a farm income crisis, wherein grocery prices are rising for consumers, yet farmers’ net income fell by $3.3 billion in 2024 alone and total farm debt rose to over $166 billion. Farmers are also embroiled in the tariff crisis as corporations are taking advantage of trade uncertainties to pay farmers lower prices and further disempower them. And finally, farmers are on the frontlines of the climate crisis, a crisis which received only passing mention in the cabinet mandate letter, even while severe drought conditions threaten prairie crops and an unprecedented and devastating wildfire season rages in northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Canadian food sovereignty over the long-term demands serious federal interventions to mitigate climate change and develop resilience strategies to manage its impacts.
Instead of prioritizing new free trade deals and “establishing a new economic and security relationship with the United States and strengthening our collaboration with reliable trading partners and allies around the world,” the NFU believes the Government should invest in local markets and commit to rebuilding local and regional food production, processing, storage and distribution infrastructure so that Canada has reliable, long-term capacity to feed our population. The ongoing collapse of the American government’s capacity to enforce food safety measures is another strategic reason to reduce our dependence on imported food from the USA.
Rather than cede to Trump’s erratic and escalating demands in order to access American markets, the Government should definitely seek more reliable trading partners and allies while reducing our export dependence. But to ensure Canadian producers have economic dignity and are not disadvantaged in export markets, the Government should reintroduce single-desk hog marketing and transition beef to single-desk marketing for commodity scale farms and re-establish and expand the Canadian Wheat Board to cover all commodity grains and all of Canada. And any trade deals—with the U.S. or other nations—must not sacrifice Supply Management, which protects Canada’s dairy, egg and poultry sectors and ensures a safe, high-quality and steady supply of these products to Canadian consumers.
The NFU believes another of the cabinet’s priorities—”removing barriers to interprovincial trade”—to be largely a red herring that has dangerous implications for the health and safety of all Canadians. We reject the notion that provincial and federal government policies and regulations are a burden on the economy. In many cases, they support local food systems, and if they were done away with, these local food systems would be harmed.
Instead of ceding to corporate demands to remove interprovincial trade barriers, the Government should be enacting measures to prevent corporate profiteering. The federal government must prevent corporations from using trade uncertainty as a cover for price gouging, wage suppression and the discounting of farm product prices. Canada also needs to address the excessive concentration of ownership in the agriculture and food sector, where monopolistic behaviour has become the rule rather than the exception. If Canada is unable or unwilling to break up monopolistic companies, other methods of regulating and limiting their market power must be put in place or these corporate giants will continue to be in charge of our food supply.
Improving Canada’s “security relationship with the United States” and “returning our overall immigration rates to sustainable levels” should not mean capitulating to Trump by attacking asylum seekers and immigrant rights, granting ministerial powers for mass deportations, eroding privacy protections, and unfairly denying refugee protection as seen by the recently introduced Bill C-2. Fair and equitable immigration policies are necessary to ensure that we have the workforce needed to grow the food we all rely on. With the dramatic numbers of farmers approaching retirement in the next decade, a bold new vision for immigration is necessary that acknowledges the value of the people whose skills and energies are needed to keep farms producing food in Canada. This inclusive and just vision should include immediately rescinding Bill C–2, providing Canada’s current migrant workers with a pathway to citizenship, and extending labour rights and the right to collective bargaining to all farm workers.
A recent meeting with provincial and territorial leaders focused on the need and desire for nation-building projects in Canada. The NFU puts forth that one of the most significant nation-building projects that could be undertaken is that of food sovereignty in Canada. This project would require serious investments in local food systems, and new strategies to protect and empower farmers and agricultural workers. We implore the 30th Government of Canada to take these policy demands seriously and implement them rapidly in order for our agricultural system to become resilient to the overlapping crises that face it.For more on a nation-building vision that centres food sovereignty for the benefit of farmers, farm workers, and consumers, please review the NFU’s alternative vision and mandate here. Our leaders are also available, at your convenience, to share how we might achieve this vision.
Sincerely,
Jenn Pfenning, NFU President
Phil Mount, NFU 1st Vice President (Policy)
