WHY IT MATTERS: More than 80 per cent of pulses exported from Canada to India are grown in Saskatchewan.

The Canada-India Pulse Protein Centre of Excellence would be built at the National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management in Kundli, 40 kilometres north of New Delhi, said the Saskatchewan government in a March 3 news release.

The proposed centre would focus on the advancement of pulse protein processing and the development of fortified foods. It would also strengthen the relationship and support economic growth between the two countries, as well as improve global nutrition, reduce environmental impacts and advance sustainable agriculture.

Both the U of S and NIFTEM were named by their respective federal governments to be the co-chairs of the facility.

“The University of Saskatchewan has a strong history of developing agricultural innovations that have real world impact,” said Baljit Singh, the U of S’s research vice-president.

“We are committed to addressing the global demand for plant-based proteins and applying our world-class researchers, labs and infrastructure to address these needs. We look forward to working alongside our partners in India and the Government of Saskatchewan to create sustainable solutions.”

The pulse protein centre was announced during a trade mission to India by Canadian officials, including Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe.

“Our province is essential for global food security,” Moe said.

“This announcement represents an opportunity to bring Saskatchewan’s expertise and ingenuity in pulse production to the people of India. By working together, we will accelerate innovation, expand processing capabilities, and help meet growing demand for affordable, high quality, sustainably grown foods.”

More than 80 per cent of all pulses exported from Canada to India are grown in Saskatchewan, primarily lentils, chickpeas and yellow peas.

“The Centre of Excellence underscores the long-term partnership between Saskatchewan and India in pulses,” Saskatchewan Pulse (SaskPulse) Growers chair Stuart Lawrence said.

“This collaboration between academia and government can help ensure more pulses are included in large-scale food applications and enhance the role pulses play in delivering nutritional security for the benefit of Indian consumers and Saskatchewan farmers.”

Saskatchewan has exported more than $18 billion worth of goods to India since 2007. The province opened a trade and investment office in New Delhi in 2021, one of nine worldwide.

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The visit signals a deliberate shift from crisis management to economic statecraft.

In Mumbai, Carney announced that Canada aims to conclude a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with India by the end of this year, with the goal of doubling two-way trade by 2030. The message was pragmatic: the two countries may not always agree, but engagement must continue.

From rupture to reset

Canada-India relations deteriorated sharply in September 2023, leading to diplomatic expulsions, reduced staffing and suspended trade negotiations. For much of the past two years, the relationship was defined by security tensions and mutual distrust.

The first signs of stabilization came at the 2025 G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alta., when Carney’s invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi signalled a diplomatic breakthrough. High commissioners were reinstated and ministerial channels reopened. Carney’s India visit suggests the reset is moving from symbolism to implementation.

The logic is clear. Canada’s heavy trade dependence on the United States has become riskier amid tariff threats and political volatility. Diversification is no longer aspirational; it’s strategic.

India, as one of the world’s fastest growing major economies and an increasingly central figure in global supply chains, offers scale and long-term opportunity.

Energy as the anchor

Energy emerged as the central pillar of Carney’s two-day visit. Canada and India have relaunched the Ministerial Energy Dialogue and are advancing discussions on uranium supply, conventional energy trade and clean energy co-operation.

India’s energy demand continues to rise as economic growth accelerates. It remains heavily import-dependent on crude oil and natural gas while also seeking to expand low-carbon baseload power. Canada, meanwhile, is looking to reduce its overwhelming reliance on the U.S. market.

With expanded export capacity through the Trans Mountain pipeline and growing LNG infrastructure, Canada is better positioned to reach Indo-Pacific markets than at any point in recent decades.

While Canada will not displace other suppliers, it can become part of India’s diversification portfolio. Long-term uranium agreements, in particular, would embed trust through decades of commercial interdependence. Nuclear co-operation offers durability that few other sectors can match.

Critical minerals, structural alignment

Beyond fuels, critical minerals represent a deeper strategic opportunity. Canada’s Critical Minerals Strategy aligns closely with India’s National Critical Minerals Mission in terms of lithium, nickel, cobalt, rare earth elements and downstream supply chains.

For Canada, the goal is not simply exporting raw resources, but building integrated value chains through processing partnerships, recycling and technology collaboration. For India, secure access to minerals is essential for electric vehicles, semiconductors, defence industrial supply chains and clean energy technologies, particularly as it seeks to reduce dependence on China-dominated processing networks.

Progress in critical minerals would move the relationship beyond symbolic diplomacy toward structural alignment.

Although CEPA negotiations have stalled in the past, both countries now face stronger incentives to revive them amid global trade turbulence and diversification pressures.

Progress on energy and minerals can help build domestic support for stability while wider trade talks continue.

Innovation, security

Carney’s visit also emphasized people-to-people and innovation ties. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand launched a new Canada–India Talent and Innovation Strategy, including 13 new university partnerships spanning artificial intelligence, hydrogen research, digital agriculture and health sciences.

Education has long anchored Canada–India relations. Embedding research collaboration and talent mobility strengthens long term institutional linkages that outlast political cycles. Artificial intelligence co-operation, in particular, aligns Canada’s strengths in responsible AI governance with India’s scale in digital infrastructure and AI deployment.

Despite economic progress, however, security concerns between India and Canada remain unresolved. The diplomatic fallout of 2023 continues to affect trust.

During the visit, Anand faced repeated questions about foreign interference and transnational repression. She emphasized that public safety concerns must be addressed through direct engagement rather than disengagement.

Recent reports of ongoing threats and warnings to Sikh activists in Canada show that underlying tensions persist, even as both governments seek to prevent them from defining the entire relationship.

Ottawa’s tone appears more measured, but the conflicting narratives between the two countries remains evident.

The road ahead

Carney’s challenge is now therefore twofold: advance economic co-operation while preventing unresolved security disputes from derailing the broader reset of the Canada-India relationship.

Improved ties with India also align with Carney’s broader foreign policy vision, articulated in Davos, that middle powers must co-operate more closely in response to fractures in the global order.

India’s inclusion in a broader Indo-Pacific tour alongside Australia and Japan underscores that this engagement is part of a wider strategic recalibration.

Stabilizing relations with India is therefore not simply a bilateral exercise. It’s about positioning Canada more credibly in the Indo-Pacific region and strengthening co-ordination among democratic middle powers navigating geopolitical uncertainty.

The significance of Carney’s visit lies less in rhetoric and more in trajectory. By setting a target for a trade agreement, advancing energy and uranium co-operation, deepening critical minerals alignment and expanding academic partnerships, Ottawa is attempting to anchor the relationship in long-term interdependence.

The reset is not complete. Security tensions still cast a shadow. But the visit suggests that both governments are willing to compartmentalize disputes and focus on areas of shared economic and strategic interest.

—Saira Bano is an assistant professor of political science at Thompson Rivers University.

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New Delhi and Ottawa hope to increase bilateral trade to US$50 billion by 2030, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during a joint media appearance with Carney, from nearly US$9 billion (C12.3 billion) in 2024-25.

WHY IT MATTERS: India is a key market for Canadian pulses, particularly lentils, and also imports other goods like packaged foods. However, Canadian farmers have faced tariffs on pulse exports to that country.

The two sides have agreed to the terms of reference on a comprehensive economic partnership, the Indian foreign ministry added.

Pulse protein centre of excellence

In a joint statement, Carney and Modi “highlighted expanding opportunities for collaboration in agri-technology, research, and value-added food production, and agreed that deeper agricultural partnership will advance sustainable farming practices, nutrition security, and mutually beneficial trade and investment.”

They welcomed a proposal to create a “Canada–India Pulse Protein Centre of Excellence” at India’s National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM) Kundli. The aim of the centre would include collaboration on research, advancing pulse protein processing and strengthening ties between academia and industry in the two countries.

Carney and Modi “noted the complementary strengths of the Province of Saskatchewan as a global leader in pulse production and innovation, and India as the world’s largest producer and consumer of pulses,” the statement said.

Uranium deal

They also agreed on a C$2.6 billion uranium deal and will work on building small modular nuclear reactors and advanced reactors, both sides said. “In civil nuclear energy, we have concluded a landmark deal for the long-term supply of uranium,” Modi said.

The Indian government and Canada’s Cameco have signed a uranium supply agreement to support India’s nuclear ambitions and to work towards a clean, reliable base load power, Carney added.

Relations between India and Canada deteriorated sharply in 2023 after then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged Indian involvement in the killing of a Canadian Sikh separatist, accusations New Delhi rejected as “absurd”.

The dispute deepened and led to expulsions of diplomats and freezing of trade negotiations.

Carney’s four day India visit is aimed at resetting ties, as both countries look to diversify trade away from the United States due to tariff announcements and deepen cooperation in areas such as clean energy, critical minerals and agricultural value chains.

India sealed a free‑trade pact with the European Union in January, while it recently paused negotiations with the United States on a proposed deal, hoping to resume once there is greater clarity following the invalidation of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

–Reporting by Sakshi Dayal, Shivangi Acharya and Shilpa Jamkhandikar, with files from Glacier FarmMedia.

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Panelists at the Canadian Federation of Agriculture’s annual general meeting in Ottawa discussed how the recently announced framework could mean a new era for agriculture’s relevance in Canada and what producers must do to get their voices heard by the government.

The NPF will succeed the current Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (SCAP) and involve negotiations with sector leaders ahead of the 2028-33 period.

As Greg Meredith, former deputy minister of the Ontario agriculture ministry, put it, there has never been a better time for Canadian agriculture to be framed as a growth opportunity.

He said the current government’s action on canola has suggested a renewed commitment to agricultural priorities.

“That was a really important step, from my perspective, to tell the sector, to tell me, to tell agriculture that there’s an opportunity to get back on the front bench with this government.”

He said the attention on agriculture has not always been common among governments.

“As deputy minister (for agriculture) I felt it. As deputy minister in economic development and trade, I felt it. In labour skills, immigration training and other ministries that I was deputy of, I felt it,” Meredith said.

“Agriculture was not job one.”

He also said the message of unity across government jurisdictions could help unite sector voices.

“Find the common interest and push on it,” Meredith said.

“I think this prime minister is listening.”

Stan Vander Waal, president and owner of Rainbow Greenhouses Inc., called the NPF an “opportunity for us to kind of reinvent ourselves in agriculture.”

“When our back’s against the wall, that’s often the time we get creative about how we deal with things, and that’s where I see us right now, when we look at this Next Policy Framework,” Vander Waal said.

“When I think of some of those challenges and I think of the opportunities that are up ahead, it’s like, if we face it with optimism, that’s where the opportunities really flow from.”

‘Fundamental consensus’

Part of this process will involve finding common ground between industry and government. Vander Waal said one challenge in similar discussions is agriculture’s occasional tendency to splinter and fail to present unified goals.

He said that while governments may be good at engaging different groups, in the end they will generally prioritize the one with the best chance of growth.

“They’re focused on trying to represent a big cross-section of farmers. So, what are the common objectives? When we talk about growth, that’s a common objective. We talk about profitability, that’s a common objective.”

Managing specific tactical problems are not necessarily common objectives.

Marvin Slingerland, senior vice-president of agriculture at MNP, also emphasized the importance of the agriculture sector staying unified throughout consultations.

“Find that base of common interest across all commodity groups, across all provinces and unify around that voice,” he said.

Slingerland warned that challenges can arise when many sector groups approach governments with different interests. This allows the government to pick and choose what to prioritize and then claim it is responding to stakeholders.

“Don’t get caught in that trap,” he said.

“Start off with the fundamental consensus and then lead the government where you want them to go. Governments do want to be popular and want to listen.”

Vander Waal said the agriculture sector should be prepared to make sacrifices if it wants to see new gains and ask the question of “what will we give up to get this?”

“I look at it as, we’re trying to make a deal,” he said.

“We’re trying to find (the) common ground between us and the government.”

If “the objective is growth and profitability, then let’s put on the table some of the things we’re willing to give up. Well, let’s also point out some of the things that we need to basically get us to where we need to be.”

Incentives wanted

Meredith expanded on the point by saying the discussion could go also include producers considering what they provide to the government.

“I don’t know that the conversation of engagement with2323w the government should be, ‘what can we give up and what do you give us in return?’ ” he said.

“I would start by (saying), ‘what are we giving you, besides food and feeding the gosh darn country, which is pretty important.’ There are all kinds of benefits that accrue from a healthy ag sector in this country.

“When Prime Minister Carney talks about reigniting the Canadian economy and generating growth and wealth for the country, this is a sector he should be starting with.…

“In my view, ‘what are you going to do for the government?’ is a question I think you should be posing to governments. What can we do for you if you get out of the way?”

He pointed to the current attention given to the cost of food in Canada and how farmers could help to address the issue.

“Let’s take a different perspective with governments and say, ‘let us solve these problems for you, but in return, we’ll need some other things.’ ”

Vander Waal and Slingerland both said new money allocated in the NPF should go toward advancing productivity and growth.

Vander Waal said he would like to see incentives encouraging farmers to take on new investments.

“Right now, I sometimes feel that … it’s the opposite,” he said.

Slingerland said he would encourage “a transformative tax policy to create investment,” such as the transferrable tax credits he sees in the United States.

“If you’re building a $10 million greenhouse, you might … be negative cash flow for two, three years, but you might have a $2 million investment tax credit that you can actually sell.”

National consultations on the NPF are expected to run until December 2027. The first phase of the process will be open until June 30.

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The Saskatchewan trip from Feb. 28 to March 6 has been planned for nearly a year to coincide with the annual Raisina Dialogue, a conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics where Moe will speak.

Prime Minister Mark Carney is also traveling to India next week for a couple of days to meet with prime minister Narendra Modi on free trade talks and drum up investment partnerships. Moe and New Brunswick premier Susan Holt will join him for meetings before Carney moves on to Australia and Japan.

WHY IT MATTERS: The Canadian and provincial governments continue to look to expand trade opportunities amid ongoing tariff threats from U.S. president Donald Trump. Canadian pulse growers currently face 30 per cent import duties on yellow peas into India, as well as 10 per cent tariffs on lentils as India protects its own farmers.

Moe told reporters Feb. 25 he hoped to address the agricultural tariffs, particularly because India could raise the lentil tariff to 30 per cent as of April 1.

“The hope today is to not have them increased,” he said.

“We’ll be engaging on that topic.”

However, he isn’t necessarily expecting movement as a result of this trip. He said that will take more negotiation and missions similar to what happened in China with regard to canola tariffs.

Moe said he hopes Carney and Modi will agree to reinvigorate discussion around the Canada-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which stalled several years ago.

That would be a positive step for Saskatchewan, which has exported $18 billion worth of products to India since 2007. In 2025, those exports totalled $1.4 billion.

Asked why Carney would again ask him to join a trade mission, as he did in China, Moe said it’s likely because Saskatchewan has been doing positive work in the market, as evidenced by the trade statistics.

The province is one of the most trade-diversified, selling into 160 countries, and Moe said that’s due to hard work and building relationships.

“I think there’s a recognition by the prime minister that we can be helpful in this space,” the premier said.

“We’re happy to see that we have a prime minister that is willing to look at the economic agreements that we have with these countries, and I think we have a role to play in supporting, advancing, those opportunities. We’ve been waiting some time to have somebody in the room that’s willing to sign a trade agreement with countries like India.”

Saskatchewan provincial budget

Meanwhile, Moe signaled this week that the provincial budget to be delivered next month will have a deficit but no tax increases. He said other provinces have also tabled deficit budgets, and he urged people to compare the deficit per capita once Saskatchewan has introduced its fiscal plan.

“There are revenue challenges due to the trade uncertainty, market uncertainty around the world,” he said.

“We experienced pretty significant agricultural tariffs in our second largest market being China, and that starts to show up, definitely on the revenue line, at the farmgate and at the provincial government level.”

However, he said the Saskatchewan economy is resilient, at least in part because it is so diversified and not dependent on a single commodity or a single market.

The opposition NDP said it didn’t trust the government to provide the province’s full financial picture.

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“We will finalize the terms of reference and are hoping to launch talks for a free trade agreement later this week,” Piyush Goyal told reporters.

— Reporting by Shivangi Acharya

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Among Group of Seven countries, Canada recorded the highest rate of food inflation in December, according to government data. Food prices rose by 6.2 per cent in December, double the rate in the U.S., and more than three times the rates in France and Germany.

Carney leads a minority government and relies on support from other parties to pass legislation and stay in power. While Canadians have consistently rated Carney as the best leader to deal with threats from U.S. President Donald Trump, voter sentiment could change quickly if concerns about American aggression lessen — and cost-of-living issues become more urgent, as they have in Britain, the U.S. and elsewhere.

A statement from the Bank of Canada this week noted that grocery prices jumped by 22 per cent in the last three years, compared to 13 per cent for other consumer prices. The central bank said last year’s food inflation was mostly driven by imported foods, supply shortages caused by extreme weather and the significant depreciation of the Canadian dollar in 2024.

Carney announced last week that the country’s poorest 12 million people will get a tax credit for the next five years, “to make sure Canadians have the support they need now.” The government is also taking other measures, like setting aside C$500 million to help businesses deal with supply chain disruptions and allowing producers to write off greenhouse expenses.

Tax credits and supply chain support

But the measures do little to lower food prices in Canada, which is now the biggest driver of inflation, according to Jeremy Kronick, director of the Centre on Financial and Monetary Policy at the C.D. Howe Institute think tank in Toronto.

“This will mostly provide relief to people who are choosing between paying rent or buying food, but it is not going to bring food prices down,” said Michael von Massow, a professor at the University of Guelph who specializes in food economics.

John Fragos, press secretary for Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, said the new government initiatives were only a first step towards curbing food costs.

“We’ve bridged the food inflation gap as it exists now and we’re taking aim at structural issues that will, over the medium and long term, bring down the price of groceries,” said Fragos.

In late 2024, ex-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announced a two-month suspension of a sales tax on selected goods “to give Canadians more money in their pockets.” It had mixed results, with some sectors like restaurants reporting increased sales while other businesses did not see an impact.

Canada’s unique grocery market problems

Academics point to entrenched issues including the dominance of just five companies in the grocery sector, a shorter growing season for produce in Canada, and a reliance on the U.S. that has resulted in higher prices via supply chain disruptions.

“There are some uniquely Canadian problems that make the cost of food here so very expensive,” said Michael Widener, who studies food systems at the University of Toronto.

“Labour and transportation costs are higher, and geographically, we are not close to many other markets,” he said, adding that the dependence on produce from the U.S. and Mexico made Canada extremely vulnerable.

Sylvain Charlebois, an expert in food distribution at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, said the government should focus on efforts like eliminating high transportation costs between provinces, addressing the high internal costs of production due to labour laws and the industrial carbon tax among other constraints, and increasing competition within the grocery sector. Canada is a major producer of canola, wheat, dairy and meat but is almost entirely dependent on imports of fresh produce during the winter.

Fresh fruit and vegetables routinely cost at least twice as much in Canada as they do in Britain and elsewhere in Europe; a two-pound bag of carrots in Canada costs $2.21, compared to $0.95 in Britain and $1.18 in Germany, according to online retailers.

Food prices ‘not a voting issue’

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has long railed against the high cost of food for Canadians, but that has not translated into increased support. He still trails Carney by double digits in opinion polls — and Carney’s approval has risen since his widely praised Davos speech that openly called out the world’s superpowers for using “economic integration as weapons,” according to several polls.

A poll by Nanos on January 30 showed 54 per cent of Canadians approved of Carney but also noted that 11.4 per cent said inflation was their biggest concern, up from 9.3 per cent a month earlier.

The Conservatives’ co-deputy leader Melissa Lantsman told reporters on Monday that “no amount of tax rebates” will solve the problem of food inflation, adding that more than 2 million Canadians, or about five per cent of the population, now rely on food banks, the highest-ever recorded number.

Shachi Kurl, president of the non-profit pollster Angus Reid, said despite food costs consistently ranking among Canadians’ top concerns, Trump’s repeated threats to annex the country have translated into a bigger issue for voters.

“For the time being, food prices are not a voting issue,” Kurl said. “But if Canadians think that is something they can hold their leader accountable for, it may yet become one.”

Ashton Arsenault, who was an aide to a Conservative minister under previous leader Stephen Harper, said exorbitant food costs should present an opportunity for Conservatives to win more public support, but that a steady rise in prices over the years have largely left most Canadians resigned to the inflation.

“Even when things get really bad, we are still very Canadian and polite about it and don’t take to the streets to protest,” he said. “This is a very tough problem to fix and it will take political courage to do it.”

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That’s according to Farm Credit Canada chief economist Desmond Sobool during FCC’s most recent economic outlook, Jan 22.

FCC expects farmers will see another jump in their bills this year. Its farm cost projections expect overall expenses to rise four per cent in 2026 over the previous year.

“If you look back to 2019, which is kind of our base pre-pandemic year, overall farm expenses are up over 50 per cent since 2019,” Sobool said. “In comparison, inflation in Canada overall is up 20 per cent, so you can just see how much more significant the impact of inflation has been on farm expenses.”

WHY IT MATTERS: Canada’s economy, agriculture included, is till trying to navigate volatile seas when it comes to trade and geopolitics, affecting projected farmer profit margins, investment and growth prospects in the agriculture sector and more. However, Canadian cattle will continue a run of strong, stable prices.

Sobool’s most energizing message concerned Canada’s new agreement-in-principle with China, which promised to drop Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola seed from 76 per cent to 15 per cent by March and eliminate China’s tariff on Canadian canola meal (at least for 2026) and peas — a boon for the domestic canola crushing sector.

“(Producers) have some certainty that there will be market access for canola this year,” he said.

That was before U.S. President Donald Trump threatened 100 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods if Canada makes a trade pact with China. The U.S. is Canada’s biggest canola customer, worth about $7.7 billion of oil, meal and seed exports.

Cattle wave still rolling

Sobool reported Canadian cow-calf producers and feedlots are set for another year of strong prices, driven in part by moderating feed costs.

Canadian cattle growers are finally seeing signals for expansion of the national herd, which steadily dropped over the drought years of the early 2020s.

The U.S., meanwhile, has its own challenges on herd retention. Heifer retention rates remain at a 75-year low, Sobool said.

Sobool also looked at the number of cows and heifers being sent to slaughter as a percentage of total animals to determine cattle herd trends. Once that percentage dips below 40 per cent, it’s a signal that the cattle herd is expanding. Canada’s percentage is currently at 41 per cent.

“In the U.S. it’s still about 49 per cent through 2025, so in the U.S., we’re still not seeing those market signals and so that’s going to continue to support prices.”

GDP slowdown

Canada’s economy is still growing, but FCC expects that growth to be slow.

The lender is forecasting Canada’s economic growth will slow from 1.7 per cent in 2025 to 1.2 per cent in 2026.

“I understand that what we’re saying here is quite different from consensus on interest rates, because most forecasters are predicting either no change to the overnight rate or even an increase later this year,” said Krishen Rangasamy, principal economist with FCC.

“That may well be the right forecast if the economy picks up materially. But … we think economic growth will weaken this year and if we’re correct about that additional stimulus by the central bank should not be ruled out.”

Uncertainty over the future of the soon-to-be-reviewed Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) will continue to be a limiting factor, Rangasamy said.

He suspects Canadian exporters in CUSMA’s tariff-free categories such as farm, fishing and intermediate food products have felt above-expected tariff impacts due to confusion over rules of origin requirements, losing their CUSMA compliance in the process.

“Remember that the majority of our exports to the U.S. is tariff-free thanks to CUSMA, and yet, outside of the energy sector, our exporters have really struggled since the U.S. tariffs were imposed,” he noted.

Tariffs placed on Canadian goods have caused U.S. importers to look elsewhere. This has caused Canada’s share of the U.S. market to drop to 11 per cent — its lowest ever — in 2025.

Diversified trade

Although Rangasamy considers Canada’s attempts to diversify trade partners commendable, he was disappointed in the country’s apparent inability to “materially reduce” dependence on the U.S., in light of its 15 free trade agreements with 51 countries.

“We’re not capitalizing on opportunities presented by those trade deals,” he said, citing ignored opportunities presented by the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

That agreement was designed to offer Canadian businesses preferential access to the EU market. But some expected big winners when the deal was first inked have failed to see major gains, particularly meat sectors who say regulation conflicts continue to keep them out.

Leveraging the house

This year will also see a large share of Canadian households renewing mortgages at higher interest rates than their origination. According to Bank of Canada estimates, mortgage payments will increase by an average six per cent this year.

“Those households that are renewing their fixed-year, five-year mortgage — which, by the way, is the most popular mortgage product in the country. For those folks, payments will increase by about 20 per cent,” listeners heard.

If there’s a bright spot for Canada, Rangasamy said it’s the federal government’s new focus on ambitious public projects that could rekindle business investment. But don’t expect big results too soon.

“It’s probably not a 2026 story. It’s probably something more like next year or even 2028.”

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“We’re working to address the root causes of inflation and working on longer-term solutions to bring down the cost of groceries in Canada,” said Prime Minister Mark Carney. “That starts by improving the resilience of our supply chains.”

“Global supply chain shocks caused by tariffs, weather events from a changing climate, and geopolitical disruptions have caused food prices to rise faster than overall inflation,” he added.

Carney announced Monday morning the government’s new plans for a national food security strategy, including support for food infrastructure and the Competition Bureau, a grocery rebate and unit-label pricing.

WHY IT MATTERS: Food affordability and insecurity remain major barriers for Canadian consumers.

In the 2025 budget, the government called food security a key factor in Canada’s agricultural competitiveness. Food affordability and insecurity remain major barriers for Canadian consumers.

Tariffs have added more uncertainty to the issue, affecting prices throughout 2025. Retailers have passed on many of these supply chain costs to consumers.

The government committed $500 million from the previously announced Strategic Response Fund toward helping food businesses expand capacity.

It will also introduce immediate expensing for greenhouse buildings, allowing producers to fully write off greenhouses acquired on or after Nov. 4 of last year.

Carney said there will also be support for the Competition Bureau to monitor and enforce competition in markets.

Another announced measure is unit label pricing “so Canadians can compare easily, in this era of shrinkflation.”

— With files from Reuters

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Leading up to that day, media outlets reported “workforce adjustment” notices coming for multiple departments, with AAFC among them. When, and how many jobs lost for agriculture? The closest thing to an answer I could find the night before appeared to be a letter to AAFC staff from the department’s deputy minister, copied and posted to Reddit by a third party on the CanadaPublicServants subreddit.

There was no reason to doubt its accuracy, but the idea of relying on Reddit as a sole sources makes any good journalist squirm. Fortunately, our national affairs reporter, Jonah Grignon, was able to get confirmation from an AAFC source on Jan. 22 that the letter was correct: about 665 positions were to be cut, with notifications going out to affected employees that day.

Later the same day, though, we began seeing more posts from third parties on social media, this time that federal research farms and facilities would be closing. From the federal government itself though? We got only crickets.

Most of our staff were still out Jan. 23 confirming where job cuts and facility closures are to happen at all.

A single federal press release or public statement up front would have made our jobs way easier and freed up time to ask the deeper question: How will these cuts affect farmer-facing services and research?

More to the point, it would have given some much-needed certainty rather than abdicating the conversation to spiral into speculation and rumour.

This isn’t necessarily to suggest there shouldn’t have been spending cuts. After the last federal budget rolled in November, we all knew there would be cuts — just not the where, when or how.

Nor is it to suggest federal officials had nothing else important to do. That week in the news included the prime minister’s remarkably consequential speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and the cabinet retreat in Quebec right afterward, ahead of the House of Commons coming back Jan. 26 from adjournment.

But Canada’s government is a big organization and can do more than one thing at a time. On Jan. 22 alone, it publicly announced a funding extension for the Manitoba Farmer Wellness Program, funding for subway train manufacturing in Quebec, a new Competition Bureau report on businesses’ use of “algorithmic pricing,” seizures of contraband at the federal penitentiary in Kingston and that a National Film Board-funded short film is up for an Oscar.

My point is, the Liberal budget firmly declared a dual agenda of building a more versatile Canadian economy while “spending less to invest more” and pursuing responsibility through this “comprehensive expenditure review.”

Yet when workforce adjustment and closure notices went out nationwide, affecting thousands of workers’ lives and communities, the government chose not to get out in front of its cuts at all — even if just to try and keep control of its own messaging.

The government’s budget trumpeted its commitment to fiscal responsibility by cutting $60 billion in spending over the next five years. It’s not to much to ask that, once a course of action is set, the Liberals at least try to own their own decisions.

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