Quebec dairy farmers are keeping a close eye on the new free trade agreement.
Though Ottawa is promising to protect farmers with $4.3 billion in compensation over the next 15 years, some say they remain skeptical about the plan that would allow an additional 3.25 per cent of foreign dairy imports into the country.
“What's the future of our children? Now we don't know, because it's very new,” said Real Gauthier of Les Fermes Blanches, a dairy farm that has been in his family for decades.
“My son is in the young generation. He's the sixth generation on this farm,” he said.
Gauthier says he and other Quebec farmers are nervous about the deal, adding that Canadian consumers should be concerned too.
“Animal care, quality of the product -- it's not the same when you are in the U.S. or in the other countries,” he said.
Agriculture Minister Pierre Paradis called the deal "a golden opportunity" for some – such as pork and maple syrup producers gaining access to new markets – but added, “it's not easy for the milk producers. It's a double impact. The treaty with the European Union was already signed. Now we've signed one with Asia Pacific, so it's a double impact on them.”
This massive trade deal was already a hot-button issue in the election campaign, and now that it's been signed, the political sparring is only intensifying.
“They will start compensating people at which level? That we don't know. So we have to check all the details,” said Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe.
But even without all the details, Duceppe believes the TPP will hurt Quebec dairy farmers.
“The farmers in the milk sector would face a loss approximately of $25,000 a year, so maybe it's not a big loss for Stephen Harper but for those people it is an important loss,” he said.
Gauthier agrees, saying he made major investments into his farm over the last three years.
“We invested three quarters of a million dollars, and we’ll pay this over 20 years. It's not in five years, so it's very long. We question our future,” said Gauthier.
