Farmers' Rights &
Food Sovereignty
The Fraser Valley is one of the most productive agricultural regions in Canada, and yet remains one of the most threatened. For most of the twentieth century, the federal government stood behind Canadian farmers: the Wheat Board gave them collective bargaining power, supply management gave them stability, and Canadian processing kept the wealth created by Canadian farmers in Canadian hands.
Then they sold it out from under us. From seeds and fertilizer, to farm equipment and machinery, to livestock antibiotics, to pork, poultry and beef processing, to the grocery shelves where it all ends up, corporations have consolidated control of every stage of our food system, driving up costs for farmers and families at every turn.
Today, four corporations make 56 per cent of global seed sales, three corporations handle 76 per cent of Canada’s grain, and just two make 80 per cent of our bread. In the last twenty years, we have lost 6 million acres of farmland and nearly a quarter of all farms. Our food system has been handed to foreign elites, and the politicians who were supposed to protect Canadian farmers helped them take it.
Invest In Flood Mitigation For The Valley
Farmland in the Fraser Valley has become a speculative asset for corporations and investors to buy up, driving up prices, and locking out the next generation of farmers. There is a crisis brewing because of it: today 40 per cent of Canadian farmers are planning on retiring in the next decade, while 66 per cent of all farmers have no succession plan, meaning more farmland in the hands of corporations or developers. We’ve already lost more than 6 million acres of farmland in the last twenty years, we can’t afford to lose anymore. That’s why Mission—Matsqui's New Democrats are calling for the establishment of a federally administered National Farmland Land Bank, to purchase farmland from retiring farmers and lease it to new farmers at below-market rates, to give them a chance to plant some roots. This is how we provide for young farmers the opportunity to create for themselves a livelihood, to provide for themselves and their families.
Defend Supply Management
Dairy, egg and poultry farmers in the Fraser Valley operate under one of the few parts of Canada's food system that isn't dominated by a handful of foreign conglomerates: supply management. By matching domestic production to domestic demand and setting a floor under farmgate prices, the system gives family farms here in Abbotsford something the beef, grain, and hog sectors lost decades ago: a stable income that doesn't collapse every time a multi-national processor decides to squeeze its suppliers. But the system is on the table again: dismantling supply management is one of Donald Trump's central demands for trade negotiations with Canada. It isn't the first time a Canadian government has been asked to trade supply management away for a "win" somewhere else in the negotiation, and it won't be the last unless Parliament takes the option off the table for good. It's time to take supply management off the table for good: New Democrats are fighting to defend it, close the diafiltered-milk and other sub-product workarounds that let processors dodge its protections, and ensure any future trade agreement upholds it by law, not by the goodwill of whoever happens to be negotiating that year.
A National Land Bank For New And Young Farmers
Farmland in the Fraser Valley has become a speculative asset for the elites to buy up, driving up prices and locking out the next generation of farmers. There is a crisis brewing because of it: today 40 per cent of Canadian farmers are planning on retiring in the next decade, while 66 per cent of all farmers have no succession plan, meaning more farmland in the hands of the elites. We’ve already lost more than 6 million acres of farmland in the last twenty years; we can’t afford to lose any more. That’s why Mission—Matsqui's New Democrats are calling for the establishment of a federally administered National Farmland Bank, to purchase farmland from retiring farmers and lease it to new farmers at below-market rates, to give them a chance to plant some roots. This is how we provide for young farmers the opportunity to create for themselves a livelihood.
Ban Terminator Seeds
In 2024, Bill C-244 and C-294 enshrined farmers’ rights to repair the equipment they’ve paid for, ensuring the four corporations that control 43 per cent of the world’s farm equipment manufacturing could no longer use digital locks to prevent farmers from fixing their own tractors without paying corporate fees to flip a switch. However still, farmers are too often unable to purchase the replacement parts they need, thereby being forced to buy new equipment or machinery all together, and what protections this legislation does offer, has little enforcement teeth. That’s why Mission—Matsqui's New Democrats are demanding the establishment of a National Farm Equipment and Tool Board with the authority to enforce right-to-repair laws, mandate access to parts, software, and diagnostic tools, and regulate pricing practices in agricultural equipment markets.
Seed Sovereignty
Today, four corporations have control of 56 per cent of global seed sales. These elites drive up costs for farmers and families alike by squeezing as much profit out of our food system as they can. They’ve lobbied our patent offices and agricultural regulators to prevent Canadian farmers from saving our open-pollinated seeds, except those in the public domain, forcing all farmers who don’t grow heirloom varieties to purchase seeds again and again, season after season. Meanwhile, the four corporations that control 43 per cent of the world’s farm equipment manufacturing use digital locks to prevent farmers from fixing their own tractors without paying corporate fees to flip a switch. Mission—Matsqui's New Democrats are calling for explicit legal protections of farmers' rights to save, replant, and exchange seed, expanded public seed banks and publicly funded plant breeding programs, and the establishment of a National Farm Equipment and Tool Board with the authority to enforce right-to-repair laws, mandate access to parts, software, and diagnostic tools, and regulate pricing practices in agricultural equipment markets.
A National Farm Equipment And Tool Board
In 2024, Bill C-244 and C-294 enshrined farmers’ rights to repair the equipment they’ve paid for, ensuring the four corporations that control 43 per cent of the world’s farm equipment manufacturing could no longer use digital locks to prevent farmers from fixing their own tractors without paying corporate fees to flip a switch. However still, farmers are too often unable to purchase the replacement parts they need, thereby being forced to buy new equipment or machinery all together, and what protections this legislation does offer, has little enforcement teeth. That’s why Mission—Matsqui's New Democrats are demanding the establishment of a National Farm Equipment and Tool Board with the authority to enforce right-to-repair laws, mandate access to parts, software, and diagnostic tools, and regulate pricing practices in agricultural equipment markets.
Farmer-Owned Cooperatives and Agricultural Marketing
Farmers across the Fraser Valley are increasingly squeezed by the corporations that control processing, distribution, and retail, extracting value at every stage while farmers get less and less for what they produce. The solution isn't more corporate consolidation but more farmer ownership of processing facilities, storage, and marketing systems. Mission—Matsqui's New Democrats are calling for the establishment of a federal Agricultural Co-operative Development Fund to finance the creation and expansion of farmer-owned processing, storage, and marketing co-operatives across the country. When farmers own the means of processing and marketing their own products, the wealth created by Canadian farmers remains in our hands.
Protect The Soil
Under Our Feet
The Fraser Valley's farmland is some of the most productive in the country, but floods and wind erosion threaten it. And right now, every farmer who adopts practices to protect it for the next generation pays the cost alone, while the benefits, cleaner water, more resilient crops, a liveable planet, are shared by everyone. That's why Mission—Matsqui's New Democrats are fighting for a National Soil Protection and Regeneration Strategy, providing direct subsidies and grants to farmers who adopt soil-protective and regenerative practices like crop rotation, cover cropping, reduced tillage, and organic soil restoration. Farmers who take care of the land for the next generation shouldn't have to foot the whole bill themselves.
A National Agricultural Water Reserve
Water is a public resource, but drought, climate change, and competing industrial demands are putting reliable access to it further out of farmers' hands every year. Farmers need certainty that the water their crops depend on will still be there next season, and the season after that, not just whichever bidder is willing to pay the most for it. That's why Mission—Matsqui's New Democrats are fighting for a National Agricultural Water Reserve to protect the aquifers, watersheds, and irrigation sources Fraser Valley farmers depend on, and to make sure federal water policy puts food production and healthy ecosystems ahead of speculative, extractive, and export-driven water use.
Fisheries Fleet Separation
The Fraser River salmon fisheries are essential to Stó:lō culture, to Indigenous food sovereignty, and to the livelihoods of independent fishers across our riding. In Atlantic Canada and Quebec, Fleet Separation and Owner-Operator policies have successfully kept fishing licences in the hands of active, local fishers rather than large processors. British Columbia has no such protection, and corporate concentration of fishing licences is squeezing out independent fishers from the industry. Mission—Matsqui’s New Democrats are demanding the extension of Fleet Separation and Owner-Operator protections to all Canadian fisheries, ensuring that fishing licences are issued only to active, independent fishers and that corporate ownership of licences is prohibited nationwide.
A West Coast Wild Salmon Renewal Program
Wild Pacific salmon populations have fallen by more than 90 per cent since the 1970s; twenty years ago, Canada adopted a Wild Salmon Policy built on tracking every distinct population closely enough to catch a decline before it becomes a collapse. However, since then, the number of populations Canada actually monitors each year has fallen by a third, until nearly half of B.C.'s salmon can no longer be assessed at all. And in 2022, Canada's own Pacific salmon fishery was forced out of international sustainability certification because there wasn't enough data left to prove the fishery was sustainable in the first place. That's why New Democrats are calling for the creation of a West Coast Wild Salmon renewal program by rebuilding the monitoring capacity Ottawa let wither and co-managing recovery nation-to-nation with the Stó:lō and other B.C. First Nations instead of imposing it from Ottawa.
Restore The Wheat Board
or nearly 80 years, the Canadian Wheat Board and the Canadian Wheat Pool ensured Canadian wheat farmers fair prices on their crop sold abroad. The Board maintained single-desk marketing, meaning that Canadian wheat farmers got the most they could on their crop, and the Pool reduced storage costs for wheat farmers. The Board did not affect domestic wheat costs; it only brought more wealth into the country by maximizing what farmers received for their grain. Single-desk marketing officially ended in 2012; the year prior, the Board brought in $5.8 billion for the 21 million tonnes of grain exported to 70 countries. The end of single-desk marketing, and the Conservative government’s sale of the Wheat Board in 2015 to the G3 Global Grain Group, a joint venture between Bunge Canada and a Saudi Arabian agricultural corporation, were naked acts of corruption that only reduced the amount of wealth being brought into Canada, while driving up costs for Canadian wheat farmers with the end of the wheat pool. The Liberals' refusal to restore the CWB makes one thing clear: the revolving door of MPs turned corporate lobbyists does not serve Canadian farmers, does not serve Canadian workers, does not serve Canadians. They serve the elites, wherever they may be from. That’s why New Democrats are fighting for the restoration of the Canadian Wheat Board as the single-desk marketer for wheat and barley, giving Canadian farmers the collective bargaining power they need to compete with the global grain trading corporations that have captured the market since its elimination.