HALIFAX — Canadian farmers plan to lobby the federal government to introduce a guaranteed annual income and cap the profits of the country's largest grocery store chains.
The lobbying plans were adopted as part of nine resolutions approved by National Farmers Union members meeting at their annual conference in Moncton, New York, last week.
A number of farmers told the conference that every year it becomes more and more difficult for them to do business in Canada.
David Thompson, the union's chief executive, says small and medium-sized farmers' profits have fallen over the past two decades, equipment and input costs have risen and land prices are now unaffordable for many farmers.
While it varies by region, Thompson says that with interest rates, “it could take over 50 years just to recoup that land. Essentially, farmers going into this business are speculators at this point.”
Phil Mount, the union's vice president of policy, added that creating a new farm could cost millions of dollars.
“We're talking $3 million to $5 million to start a company if you don't come from a farming family… that's a huge investment that our parents' and grandparents' generation didn't have to think about.”
That's partly why union members put forward a resolution calling for a government-sponsored guaranteed annual income for farmers, Thompson said.
The resolution says the union will advocate for a 10-year pilot program testing a guaranteed annual income of $50,000, a rate that would increase with inflation each year.
Thompson says the details of such a program would need to be discussed with the federal government, but it's likely the program could serve as a supplement for farmers who don't reach the $50,000 threshold on their own.
There are insurance programs that the federal government offers to farmers, but Thompson says they disproportionately benefit large agribusinesses, “generating $300 (million) or $400 million in profits a year. Small and medium-sized farmers have no real access to these insurance programs.”
“We're saying we need something that actually provides universal support to farmers who are on the margins and struggling to make ends meet.”
The federal Department of Agriculture said it was not immediately available to comment on the resolutions on Tuesday.
Two resolutions appear to target Canada's largest grocery chains. One of the resolutions calls on the union to lobby the federal government to pass legislation that would limit the profits of large grocery chains that control the lion's share of the market.
Another resolution calls on the union to create a national coalition to pressure the federal government to buy food directly from farmers and sell it at cost to “a network of national/provincial/municipal public grocery stores.” The union did not provide details on how it would work.
“There are three giant grocery store chains, Loblaws, Sobeys and Metro, that reported sales of $100 billion last year and profits of $3.6 billion. So that's a monopoly that can be broken,” said Gavin Fridell, a professor at St. Mary's University in Halifax, on a panel on the first day of the conference.
Neither the Retail Council of Canada nor the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers were immediately available to comment on the proposed resolutions Tuesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 25, 2025.
