Farms and Fuels Alliance calls on PM to follow through protecting producers from imports
In Canada, the Farms and Fuels Alliance (FFA) called on the Government of Canada to follow through on Prime Minister Carney’s September 5, 2025, commitment to amend the Clean Fuel Regulations (CFR) to protect Canada’s domestic biofuels sector — and to deliver on that commitment this summer, with a credit multiplier for Canadian-produced ethanol.
Canada’s ethanol industry has invested billions in world-class facilities, supports thousands of jobs in rural communities, and purchases approximately one in three bushels of Ontario corn. Yet today, Canadian producers are losing market share to heavily subsidized imports.
The growing Canadian demand, however, is increasingly being met by imports. Today, approximately 70 per cent of the ethanol blended into Canadian gasoline comes from outside our borders — up from less than 50 per cent just five years ago.
The competitive imbalance is being accelerated by U.S. policy. Through the 45Z Clean Fuel Production Credit, American ethanol producers receive federal support worth up to 36 cents per litre — a program now extended through 2029 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. That subsidized ethanol enters Canada and receives the same CFR credit treatment as domestic production.
The CFR was designed before a foreign subsidy of this magnitude existed. Calibrating it to reflect today’s conditions is how Canada maintains and expands the domestic capacity to be a reliable continental energy producer. A minimum 1.4x CFR credit multiplier for ethanol does exactly that.
Category: Policy
