Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in collaboration with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) launched public consultations on right to repair in June 2024.
The purpose of the public engagement is to gather feedback from Canadians to inform the development of a federal right-to-repair framework. For those individuals and organizations that have previously engaged with the federal government on repairability, these consultations are designed to build off previous engagements and will further inform the development of the framework.
This week NAEDA Canada participated in the agricultural stakeholder session along with other industry partners from both shortline and mainline manufacturers. Also participating in the consultation were various farm policy and commodity groups from across Canada, such as the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA), Canadian Canola Growers Association (CCGA), Alberta Grains (AG), Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP), Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), and the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS).
As we’ve heard and seen in the past, farm groups are proponents of Federal legislation, and this session was no different. This roundtable discussion was focused primarily on interoperability for agricultural equipment, or Bill C-294, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act (interoperability). Even though its focus was on Interoperability, the conversation included discussion about Bill C-244, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act (diagnosis, maintenance, and repair). The surrounding conversation often conflated the two concepts.
Bill C-294 – Interoperability – (NAEDA supports) is in essence meant to allow seamless connectivity between a combine and various shortline headers, or a tractor and various shortline seeding tools.
Bill C-244 – Diagnosis, maintenance, and repair – (NAEDA opposes) Our industry has already provided availability and access to the parts, tools, documentation, and diagnostics, making legislation unnecessary.
We reiterated our request that the CFA and its member organizations such as KAP, OFA, APAS etc., sign an MOU similar to what has been signed by the American Farm Bureau Federation and mainline manufacturers, however it appears there is little interest in this solution for a mechanism to avoid a RTR legislative framework.
NAEDA Canada and other members of our industry coalition raised the point that interoperability and repair are two different topics, but again the farm groups vocalized their position “that they’re interrelated much like two sides of the same coin”. They kept referring to the automotive industries OBD-II scanner which provides access to a vehicle’s vital systems and that somehow our farm equipment industry should standardize this same type of access, making diagnostic access essentially universal.
In a break from previous discussions, farm groups on the call admitted that parts, tools, documentation, and diagnostics are widely available in the market today. However, they tried to make the distinction that they were not accessible due to the cost of diagnostic tools in particular being prohibitive. NAEDA made the point that dealers are required to purchase diagnostic tools the same as owners or independent repair shops who wish to and there is no price discrimination. The reality is dealers invest a large amount of capital into facilities, employees, training and tools to service their customers and that specialization is more expensive with modern equipment. Remote diagnostic capabilities were brought up in relation to this topic. There was agreement that lack of broadband connectivity in some rural areas hampers the ability to diagnose farm equipment in the field, and that a ubiquitous broadband network would solve several remote diagnostic challenges.
The final part of the conversation turned to modification versus repair. One farm group spokesperson brought up their own farm’s solution was to delete the emissions systems on a 12-year-old tractor after several attempts to resolve the problem. We made it very clear that we support a farmer’s right to repair, however we do not support a farmer’s right to modify. We strongly asserted the need for language to close the loophole and provide enforcement mechanisms in the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) to make deletion of emissions systems illegal.
Moving forward, AAFC officials from the roundtable for farm equipment confirmed that ISED and ECCC will be holding engagement sessions on consumer electronics and home appliances. Once those session are completed, a “what we heard” report should be released early next year. NAEDA will continue advocating for dealers throughout this process and we will keep you updated on the status and development of those discussions. View NAEDA Right to Repair Consultation Comments & Addendums
If you have any questions or comments relating to any aspect of this topic, please contact your association office or Eric or Larry directly.
