Milk mystery: As prices soar, dairy farmers plead poverty

Amid all the controversy surrounding soaring milk prices we have seldom heard from the people at the centre of it all: the farmers. So, Global News sought to change that.

In a remote pocket of the Laurentian mountains of Quebec, a Greek Orthodox nun answers the door in the rain.

The sister peers out from behind the front door at the Monastery of the Virgin Mary the Consolatory, expecting another religious pilgrim.

If you’re interested in Orthodox Byzantine traditions you will be welcomed warmly. But ask about the nuns’ dairy business and you will be turned away.

Global News travelled to this isolated convent as part of a wider investigation into Canada’s dairy industry. We wanted to ask about the sisters’ public clash with Les Producteurs de lait du Québec (LPQ), the group representing Quebec dairy producers, when the sisters were handed a $75,000 fine for producing milk without a proper licence.

Even three years on, it’s a sensitive topic. While the kind but nervous nun invited me to take shelter from the storm, she also conveyed orders from above not to speak about the ordeal, in case they “get in trouble.”

This fear of reprisal became a central refrain in our months-long investigation, prompted by two unprecedented hikes to the price of milk this year. In six months, milk in many provinces has increased in price by about 20 per cent.

As inflation soars, dairy farmers say price increases are necessary to cover ballooning costs.

But industry advocates argue that no other industry is able to pass on its cost increases directly on to the consumer. Canada’s controversial supply-management system protects dairy, poultry and egg farmers from international competition by regulating supply and imposing massive border tariffs on imports.