Right to repair: A crucial element of farmer autonomy and revitalized rural economies
Fix your own machine and your warranty is void. A gauge malfunctions and your combine shuts down until a dealer-certified technician can get to the farm to replace the part. A screen displays an error code that you do not understand and you have to pay thousands of dollars to resolve it. That’s what farmers in Canada face.
For millenia, farmers across the globe have been inventing, modifying, and repairing their own tools and equipment. Today, legal frameworks around new technologies hand over excess control to manufacturers over agricultural machinery. This is why Canadian farmers need the right to repair.
What is the right to repair?
The right to repair is a political issue which pits farmers against multinational machinery companies that use standardization, compliance, and control over farm activities to make more money.
The right to repair means goods, owned or leased, are repairable at a reasonable price, within a reasonable time-frame by the owner or a repair service of the owner’s choice. It also addresses issues of waste and planned obsolescence – products designed intentionally to be replaced with newer models.
Why does the right to repair matter?
Farm machinery repair costs in Canada continue to climb; farmers footed over $4.5 billion in repair bills in 2024. Between 2000 and 2024, annual farm machinery repair costs have increased 145%. A right to repair would give farmers more options in repair services by preventing the exclusive use of proprietary parts and services and ensuring that there are repair services more local to your farm.
The issue of farmer autonomy is more relevant than ever as farm equipment relies more on complicated digital and software systems. Digital systems create new barriers to repair, including technological protection mechanisms (TPM) which can lock farmers out of their equipment. TPMs can only be unlocked using expensive, and hard-to-obtain dealer authorized software tools. If we don’t have control over the technology we use, do we really have control over our own farms?
Without strong right to repair legislation, Canadian farmers lose money and are stripped of their autonomy.
What laws exist to support the right to repair in Canada?
For agricultural machinery, the provinces of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta have legislation which governs the sale and warranties of new farm machinery and agricultural implements. Provincial farm machinery legislation provides three common guarantees which relate to, but do not guarantee, the right to repair:
- guaranteed warranty and repair for the implement’s first season of use;
- emergency replacement of parts if machinery fails during its season of use for 10 years after the purchase of a farm implement or machine; and
- the dealer’s option to offer a temporary replacement in lieu of timely repair.
In 2025, the Federal Government passed amendments to the Competition Act and the Copyright Act through Bills C-294 and C-244, respectively, which expanded Canadians’ ability to repair machinery. C-244 expanded the Copyright Act to allow for the circumvention of TPMs for the purpose of repair or a diagnostic for the purpose of repair.
Current legislation does not provide farmers with a real right to repair
Current legislation is not enough to secure a right to repair for Canadian farmers. Canadian farmers need a comprehensive right to repair in order to protect their livelihoods and autonomy. Independent repair businesses in rural communities are also disappearing. Current legislation for farm machinery falls short in providing adequate protections for independent repairers, base warranties for farm equipment, and the access to tools, information, and software to complete repairs.
A farmer-first right to repair would include guaranteed access to repair tools, information, and software, and the right to timely and affordable repair services. Right to repair legislation could also extend mandated warranties on farm equipment repair for up to 10 years after the purchase of farm machinery and would disallow manufacturers from voiding warranties if farmers chose to seek independent repair services.
What can you do to advance the right to repair in Canada?
You can get involved in the NFU’s work on the right to repair (in partnership with the Canadian Repair Coalition) today by sharing your repair stories to inform our work by filling out this Form: https://forms.gle/yeVDbToWCwmUznjj6
Join the NFU’s new Technological Sovereignty Working Group to organize on the right to repair – email marquis@nfu.ca to participate.
Inform yourself by reading the CanRepair Coalition’s model right to repair legislation.
If you live in Saskatchewan, participate in the Province’s right to repair consultation, which closes on February 26. You can use the NFU’s Farmers’ Guide to inform your answers.
Not a member of the NFU? Join today to organize for a right to repair that puts farmers first.
