Premier seeks help for canola farmers

WINNIPEG — Premier Wab Kinew is calling for “immediate action” from Ottawa following a sky-high levy placed on Canadian canola seed imports to China.

China announced a preliminary anti-dumping duty of 75.8 per cent Tuesday. The tax takes effect today.

Canola seed was Manitoba’s biggest export to China last year, bringing in $649 million. Farmers are preparing for this year’s harvest in the coming weeks.

“The Chinese government has clearly launched these tariffs at this time of year to cause maximum impact and maximum uncertainty,” Kinew said Wednesday, speaking at the Manitoba Legislative Building.

He was flanked by heads of the Manitoba Canola Growers and Keystone Agricultural Producers. Financial support from Ottawa is necessary, Kinew asserted.

China claimed Canadian companies have been “dumping” canola into its country, harming its domestic oil market. However, the new fee follows 100 per cent tariffs it placed on Canadian canola oil and meal. Those tariffs were retaliatory to tariffs Canada placed on Chinese electric vehicle imports last October.

Revenue that Ottawa generates from the EV tariffs should be funnelled to impacted farmers, Kinew stated.

“Let’s see the federal government step up with the same sort of supports that we’ve seen for the steel industry, for the auto industry and for the lumber industry,” he said, referencing sectors hit with United States tariffs.

Producers have spent maximum amounts of money preparing this year’s crop, noted Warren Ellis, chair of the Manitoba Canola Growers.

“On Tuesday morning, we lost our second-largest customer,” Ellis said. “It’s really critical that solutions come out.”

Manitoba counts 7,500 canola farmers. Its canola crop production averages around three million metric tonnes.

Canola prices will sag, forecasted Rick White, the president of the Canadian Canola Growers Association.

The national organization, like Kinew, is urging financial support from the feds “if a need arises.”

“China is going to leave a big hole that cannot be filled, definitely not in the short term,” White said.

Kinew also called upon Prime Minister Mark Carney’s administration to work with the Manitoba government on a plan to negotiate an end to Chinese tariffs. The province extended a “warm and hearty handshake” upon Carney’s election and is seeking a coherent strategy, Kinew said.

He has spoken with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe about the issue, he said.

“I think we’re all on the same page that Western Canada’s ag industry is one of the engines to our Canadian economy,” Kinew said.

China bought 15 per cent of Manitoba’s agri-food exports last year, making it the province’s second largest market. Manitoba is Western Canada’s top pork exporter to China and is second, nationally, to Quebec. (China placed 25 per cent tariffs on pork in March.)

Up to 5.9 million metric tonnes of Canadian canola seed ships annually to China at a $4-billion value, White said.

The Canadian Canola Growers Association is aiming for a “better policy environment” from Ottawa, enabling a renewable diesel market using canola seed. The industry could generate a need for more than two million metric tonnes of canola seed within Canada, White said.

» Winnipeg Free Press, with files from Carol Sanders and The Canadian Press