Quebec’s legislative assembly has passed a bill allowing the province’s overarching general farm organization, the Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA), to start the process toward a new funding model.
Provincial Agriculture Minister Andre Lamontagne on Thursday announced the passage of Bill 28, which amends legislation governing organization of farming activities and the accreditation of UPA.
The bill allows the UPA to launch a review of its funding structure and begin consultations with farmers on new regulations that would change how farms are categorized and represented — and, in turn, the annual UPA dues those farms pay, the province said.
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Said new regulations would then be submitted to the Regie des marches agricoles et alimentaires du Quebec — the province’s marketing regulator for farm production — for its approval.
EN FRANÇAIS: Plus d’équité entre les producteurs agricoles et l’UPA
The province’s current Agricultural Producers Act allows only for flat-rate annual fees for UPA membership, at either a fixed single or double rate depending on a farm business’ legal structure.
The bill is meant to give UPA greater flexibility in setting farms’ annual dues through parameters such as a farm’s volume of production or its acres under cultivation as well as the size of the farm’s operating company.
Such a move, the province said, will result in “greater equity” given the diversity in farm businesses in all four corners of Quebec.
“It will be possible from now on to develop a more equitable formula, as producers have demanded for several years,” UPA president Martin Caron said in the association’s release Thursday, thanking Lamontagne and politicians from multiple parties for both the quality and speed of the discussions leading up to the bill’s passage.
More flexible and equitable contributions to UPA in turn will encourage new small farms and start-up farm businesses, Lamontagne said in the province’s separate release, noting the bill meets a 2022 election campaign promise by the governing Coalition avenir (CAQ).
The bill applies to all 42,000 UPA-represented farmers in the province and to related farming and ag industry stakeholder organizations, the province said.
UPA noted the bill will also allow those other associations more flexibility in funding their operations. — Glacier FarmMedia Network