SaskatoonThe usual uncertainties about crop quality at harvest time are compounded by the Canadian government’s tepid efforts to help canola growers hit by Chinese tariffs, some farmers say.Farmers say they deserve same kind of support offered to industries like steel and aluminumLori Coolican · CBC News · Posted: Sep 09, 2025 6:12 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour ago As Saskatchewan canola growers work to get their crops harvested, the market impact of Chinese tariffs looms over their usual anxieties about weather and yields. (Riley Laychuk/CBC)As prairie farmers work to get their crops out of the fields, forces beyond their control cast a shadow over the bottom line.Dave Marzolf, who farms in the Central Butte area in southern Saskatchewan, says he still needs to bring in his canola and wheat, and it certainly won’t be a bumper crop.As usual, he can’t control the weather, “and I can’t control political incompetence,” Marzolf told CBC Radio Saskatoon Morning host Stephanie Massicotte in an interview Tuesday.”It’s a toss-up to which one is costing me more money this year.”LISTEN | Saskatoon Morning checks in with two farmers: Saskatoon MorningChecking in with two farmers to see how harvest is going and what they make of Carney’s relief package for canola producersIt’s the time of year when farmers start getting nervous. While part of the crop is in the bin, there is still a lot left in the field. To find out how some farmers are coping, host Stephanie Massicotte contacted Eugene Eggerman, who farms near Watson, and Dave Marzolf, who farms in the Central Butte area, near Lake Diefenbaker.Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Friday announcement of $370 million in incentives for the canola sector in the face of China’s decision to impose a 75.8 per cent tariff on Canadian canola seed helps the biofuels industry but does nothing for producers like him, Marzolf said.”What are they doing for farmers? We’re the ones that are taking the hit. Our job is just about done and yet we’re not getting anything back from doing our job,” he said.Eugene Eggerman, who farms near Watson, said he shares that frustration.”I know the tariffs that China’s doing have sure affected the price of canola dramatically and there’s not much we can do about it,” he told Massicotte.Carney also promised the government will temporarily increase the amount producers can receive in interest-free advances to $500,000, and boost funding to support diversification to new markets.That hasn’t reduced his stress level, Eggerman said.”It’s an interest-free loan that’s just digging the hole deeper.”WATCH | Ottawa’s help for canola producers ‘misses the mark’: Ottawa’s help for canola producers ‘misses the mark,’ says Canola Council of CanadaChief political correspondent Rosemary Barton speaks with Chris Davison, president of the Canola Council of Canada, about Ottawa’s supports for the canola sector as China continues its trade dispute. Saskatchewan canola farmer Rob Stone discusses why he thinks Premier Scott Moe’s trade mission to China is the best path to a resolution.The government’s $75-million funding boost for efforts to expand markets in Africa, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific and reduce Canada’s reliance on the Chinese market should have happened long ago, Marzolf said.”You go to some of these meetings and they say they’re looking for new markets. And yet it never happens. They still go back to the fallback, to China,” he said.Marzolf and Eggerman echoed the sentiment expressed last week by Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan president Bill Prybylski: farmers want the same consideration afforded to other industries hit by trade tariffs.”And yet they can’t support an industry that supports railways, that supports fertilizer, that supports retail, refineries, machinery dealerships. There’s no money,” Marzolf said. “But they’ll support the auto industry with billions of dollars. They’ll support everything — steel, aluminum, everything.”ABOUT THE AUTHORLori Coolican has been a reporter and editor in Western Canada since 1996.With files from Stephanie Massicotte
Just ‘digging the hole deeper’: Sask. canola growers question tariff response
