(Les Cèdres) Faced with catastrophic weather events last summer and the explosion of their operating costs, agricultural producers are finally receiving the help they demanded from Quebec.
Posted at 10:16 a.m.
Updated at 10:20 a.m.
Pierre Saint-Arnaud
The Canadian Press
The Minister of Agriculture, André Lamontagne, announced Thursday in Les Cèdres, in Montérégie, the injection of 200 million into various initiatives to support producers.
This aid aims, on the one hand, to counter the devastating effects of the weather, which caused as many floods in southwestern Quebec as a drought in Abitibi-Témiscamingue last summer – a distinct sum of 1, 6 million is also reserved specifically for this region. In total, Quebec is planning 106 million to help farmers fight against the effects of climate change and adapt to it.
On the other hand, the government is giving a financial boost to producers whose input costs have exploded on the sidelines of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
One of the programs also aims to protect them against the rise in interest rates which hits them hard, agriculture being an activity which requires considerable investments. To this end, the Protection Program against Rising Interest Rates has a budget of 37.1 million.
Quebec is also announcing significant administrative relief, a long-standing request from producers.
The general president of the Union of Agricultural Producers, Martin Caron, welcomed this new aid from Quebec.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Martin Caron, general president of the Union of Agricultural Producers
“Today’s announcement is a significant recognition of the importance (of agricultural producers) in the community, while marking positive progress in light of the many economic, climatic, administrative and regulatory challenges they face,” declared Mr. Caron in the government press release.
“The work is not finished, but there is openness and optimism. »
