Canola farmers in Alberta and Saskatchewan are feeling the effects of China's new 75% tariffs on canola seed and meal. Canola farmers across the country are being hit hard, and there's no sign of relief coming soon.
00:00:00.000As producers, we feel like we're caught in the middle of a trade war that we neither wanted or started or have any influence.
00:00:07.280Some producers are going to be forced to sell their canola and likely selling it at a loss at the prices that we're likely to see in the near future.
00:00:15.460China is one of the biggest markets for Canadian canola products, but it is now effectively closed to producers.
00:00:22.140The announcement on Tuesday immediately dropped the price for the crop, which is bad news for canola farmers across Canada, with harvest set to begin soon.
00:00:33.120So here's another chapter in the never-ending disaster that is today's Canada.
00:00:39.460China slaps devastating tariffs on Alberta and Saskatchewan's canola farmers,
00:00:45.140all because the Trudeau government decided right before they left power that Ontario's electric vehicle industry needed protecting.
00:00:55.080And if you're wondering why talk of Western independence is hitting up again in Canada, well, this might just be Exhibit A.
00:01:03.320The tariffs are coming at an already tough time for the industry, where producers are dealing with slim margins as they gear up to sell.
00:01:11.700We put our fertilizer on, we've spent our money on this crop already, so basically we've spent the money.
00:01:17.700We can't reduce costs anymore, so it's going to hurt.
00:02:24.800Well, it should, because whether it's oil and gas, pipelines, equalization payments, or now canola, the message from Ottawa is always the same.
00:02:37.200The West can take the hit as long as the East gets the benefits.
00:02:42.120And this is why more and more people out here are talking about breaking away.
00:02:47.040And it's not some fringe idea anymore.
00:02:49.220It's growing because every policy out of Ottawa seems to confirm the suspicion that Alberta and Saskatchewan are treated as provinces of convenience,
00:02:59.860good enough to fund the country, expendable when political calculations demand it.
00:06:20.500So it's very, very significant to producers, to exporters, and I would say to Canadians as a whole in an industry that employs 200,000 people.
00:06:29.100So China has decided to target the agricultural industry mostly located in Western Canada.
00:06:36.060It's obvious they're doing this as retaliation to Canada imposing a 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles in order to protect Ontario's auto sector.
00:06:45.860Whenever the Ontario car industry has been in any sort of trouble, the Canadian federal government is quick to respond in defense of that industry.
00:06:56.320Not so much for Western farmers, though.
00:06:59.280The premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan have been requesting for over a year that the feds deal with previous Chinese tariffs affecting the agriculture industry, to no avail.
00:07:10.440If this was the Quebec dairy cartel being tariffed into ruin, the liberal government would be bending over backwards to protect the Frenchies.
00:07:20.620So when you see the headlines about Chinese tariffs, don't just see a trade dispute.
00:07:26.920See another log on the fire of Western independence.
00:07:30.880Because for farmers out here, this isn't just about canola.
00:07:35.580It's about being ignored, sacrificed, and betrayed, yet again.
00:07:41.360And every time Ottawa makes a move like this, more Albertans and people from Saskatchewan stop asking if separation makes sense and start asking when and where do we sign.
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