Dairy Direct Payment Program: Step 1. What this program offers

Step 1. What this program offers

The objective of the Dairy Direct Payment Program is to support dairy producers as a result of market access commitments made under recent international trade agreements, namely the Canada–European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

In August 2019, the federal government announced that it will make available $1.75 billion to supply-managed cow’s milk producers. Up to $345 million in direct payments was made available in 2019-20.

In November 2020, the government announced the payment schedule for the remaining $1.405 billion in direct payments over the next three years:

• $468 million in 2020-21
• $469 million in 2021-22
• $468 million in 2022-23

Amounts are available up to March 31 of each year. To receive a payment, registrations must be signed and received no later than March 31 of each year.

The Canadian Dairy Commission (CDC) has been mandated to deliver the program. The CDC will:

• collect information from provincial milk marketing boards on the licensed quota holders
• calculate individual payments based on the percentage of each producer’s provincial quota holdings
• work closely with each of the provincial milk marketing boards to deliver funding