Prime Minister Mark Carney launched Canada’s new National Food Strategy, aimed at bringing down the cost of groceries for Canadians and boosting domestic food production across Canada by growing produce year-round.
But some experts say expanding greenhouse production is easier said than done.
The federal government is planning to spend $750 million to “drastically expand year-round Canadian production of fruits and vegetables,” Carney said Thursday.
This includes scaling up production through greenhouses, vertical farms and other enclosed growing spaces.
“It’s already a big sector,” said Barry Prentice, professor of supply chain management at the University of Manitoba’s Asper School of Business.
In 2025, greenhouse area in Canada increased to 35.9 million square metres.
However, the greenhouses are “centred in Ontario, and around the Leamington area, in British Columbia, and some in Quebec,” Prentice said.
Ontario alone is home to nearly two-thirds (64.9 per cent) of the greenhouse area in Canada, followed by B.C. (17.4 per cent) and Quebec (10.4 per cent).
The federal government’s support for greenhouses, hydroponics and other controlled environment agriculture will build a “stronger, more self-sufficient food supply chain” for Canada, the Canadian Produce Marketing Association said.
The commitments in the National Food Strategy “represent the highest investment in the fresh produce sector in recent history,” CMPA president Ron Lemaire said.
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture lauded the strategy’s emphasis on “advancing controlled environment agriculture.”
The National Food Strategy makes a “sizable investment in greenhouse production,” said Michael Widener at the University of Toronto’s department of geography and planning.
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“We’re so reliant on importing fruits and vegetables. Close to 90 per cent of our fruits come from outside of Canada and around 70 per cent of our vegetables. This would be a meaningful increase in what’s done domestically,” Widener said.
However, he added that it would prove very difficult to scale up production to the point where it would replace all imported produce, because building greenhouses at that scale would be too expensive.
“It’s more expensive. It is difficult to grow the large volume of fruits and vegetables that consumers want in the country through greenhouses,” he said.
Most greenhouses cost US$5 to US$35 ($7 to $49) per square foot, according to estimates from U.S. construction company CraftCamp.
In Canada, a typical small to medium-sized commercial greenhouse can be anywhere between 1,000 and 10,000 square feet, while a large-scale greenhouse can start from 10,000 square feet and run into several acres, according to Quebec-based greenhouse maker Harnois.
“It’s just easier to grow fruits and vegetables in an outdoor setting in climates that are where those foods are from than it is to sort of try to engineer it in a colder climate like Canada,” Widener said.
Growing produce year-round in Canada is also going to cost a lot more energy in Canada’s cold climate, Widener said.
“We’re going to have to actually shine the fake sunlight onto our plants, in a way that wouldn’t have to happen if it was grown in the southern U.S. or Mexico. It’s more energy-intensive, it’s more labour-intensive and our ability to do it across bigger plots of field is going to be limited,” he said.
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Greenhouse production and sales in Canada have been growing consistently, data shows. In 2025, greenhouse sales increased to $6.5 billion, Statistics Canada said.
Tomatoes were the top-selling greenhouse crop in Canada, followed by cucumbers. Production has been growing for strawberries, lettuce and herbs as well.
However, Canada’s ability to grow more vegetables and fruits is “limited,” Prentice said.
Some plants “just won’t do as well as others in the greenhouse environment,” Widener said, adding that Canadians should consider what’s in season when looking for fruits and vegetables in the grocery aisle to keep costs down.
“Perhaps it’s not reasonable for us to be thinking about having oranges year-round every winter. Because oranges in December just aren’t something that are going to be available to us here in Canada,” he said.
While greenhouses can help build a “resilient and robust food system” in Canada, “greenhouses won’t be the only solution,” Widener said.
Since nearly 40 per cent of Canada’s fresh fruits and vegetables come from the United States, the solution for Canada’s food insecurity might lie in diversifying trade relations, he added.
“If we really want to keep consuming things like strawberries or cherries or grapes year-round, we’re going to have to adjust the ways that we import those kinds of foods and think about different trading partners, maybe across South America, across the Pacific or Atlantic Oceans. But this strategy doesn’t really address that,” he said.
In the last year, Canada has inked several agreements with Asian countries, including deals on agricultural produce.
“Bananas are already really cheap, and we’re importing them from 10 different countries, Ecuador being one of the largest. You have to also remember that if we don’t import from countries, they don’t have any money to buy from us,” Prentice said.
“Trade works in two directions.”
Greenhouse food is traditionally more expensive. But if one forgets that fact, it is a great idea from our government.
I would say the new gov policy will be more about planned shortages or more seasonal food then anything else.
Hi,
How about combining DATA centers , shopping centres and wharehouses with greennhouses.
Greenhouses on roofs would likely help to insulate the units below. Heat from data centers could be used to heat greenhouses,
This last winter, I have purchased lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers grown in local greenhouses and the prices were reasonable.
Strip all taxes off the inputs for framing and ranching. Take the taxes off fuel to transport produce and food. Interesting, how the Libs said the consumer carbon tax had no impact on inflation and prices. Clearly that was not true. For 10 years, Liberal policies made things more expensive.
Matthew – an orange in Florida is useless to Canadians.
A Florida grown orange costs $0.03 to $0.04 – see: 3-4 pennies per pound to produce due to climate and scale.
Rick White – “Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.” ― Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Running a country requires compromises. It’s like making a queen sized bed with regular sheets. Opposition parties can focus on the corner that is hanging out. The government has to worry about the whole mattress.
Pick any three:
cheap groceries
hospitals
roads
schools
Try This – Western Canada’s energy is not cheap. The cheapest energy now is solar.
The main issue for high prices in vegetables is the cost of energy. Not only to heat the greenhouse, and light, but transport to consumer. Why are the Liberals continuing to ignore the obvious? Western Canada has lots of energy, and that is where the vegetable prices are highest. So why spend money on more greenhouses in Quebec and Ontario. As pointed out, the lack of greenhouses are on the prairies. Maybe instead of forcing carbon tax, Carney should be offering greenhouses to the west.
Yet more miscalculation from the Carney Liberals. Is it any winder Carney claims the average family will spend $800 per month, $10,000 per year on food. When the 2026 Food Price Report says it will be $1,464 per month, $17,572 per year. Almost double what that clown Carney says. No wonder our economy is in such a dire state with such incompetence in charge.
Why would anyone want to invest in the required realestate, infrastructure, industrial carbon taxes et al, to produce oranges at a premium when Florida can flood us with oranges?
I recall Trudeau blaming farming for “climate change”. I guess he forgot Canadians need to grow food and raise livestock to eat.
I would say that with food inflation the Libs have failed. All the schemes have been unsuccessful. Grocers code of conduct, expanded competition, none of this has brought any results. And the Liberals dismissal that the carbon tax had any effect on pricing (it did). Greenhouse will bring in more local capacity however won’t lower prices and more tax payer money will be needlessly wasted.
I recall Champagne promised lowered grocery prices by Thanksgiving 2023. There was neither Trump in the White House or a conflict in Iran. Libs had a carbon tact that jacked up the prices on everything. Fast forward almost 3 years and just another failed attempt by the Liberals
While they push against outdoor large scale farming. This is all just elbowsup smoke and mirrors. Millions will be wasted and embezzled but nothing will be done. Its the Canadian way.
Anonymous.
The Federal and Provincial Governments could cut taxes on energy also. Just imagine if the Liberals carbon tax was still levied on fuel.
Tony – Energy costs are a huge input cost to global GDP. Too bad for all of us that Carney attacked Iran and they closed the Strait of Hormuz.
Putting the blame in the right place is key to dealing with problems effectively.
Canada climate is a serious problem. Almost nothing can grow from October – March. Vast distances also. For Western Canadians California is much closer than Southern Ontario. In the end the Liberals will waste more money and have nothing to show for.
Anymore.
So you erroneously blames a trading partner. So grow more local food, but stop blaming the USA also. Perhaps the Liberals could also lower taxes on fuel and also other farming input costs
Elbozos – Tariffs are a non sequitur that only you are talking about. The program is to our increase our independence.
Unfortunately the track record of this Liberal Govt is abysmal. Lots of announcements and wasted money but little action and results. Like Trudeau and his tree planting and other examples.
Anonymous
USA doesn’t put tariffs on fruits and vegetables coming into Canada. That would be the Canadian govt if so. Also, Canada could buy from Mexico also. Blaming the USA doesn’t work in this situation.
A bit of a negative approach don’t you think? The truth is that you don’t really know what is possible until you try! It doesn’t have to be oranges and bananas! There are hundreds of amazing vegetables out there that may be possible! and it certainly need not eliminate trade or imports ! Its just a way to make things available more and hopefully cheeper than some imports. It could bring us food and more jobs. Think positively!
That’s the model we’re building at The Boaz Club (boaz.club) — think Airbnb for farming. Landowners lend their land, we build the shared greenhouse infrastructure, and the community grows. Individual plots as small as 3×3 ft let people grow their own organic produce year-round at a fraction of grocery costs. Infrastructure costs get shared across dozens of plot-holders instead of carried by one operator. Landowners earn passive income. Renters stop depending on imported produce.
Canada doesn’t need fewer, bigger greenhouses. It needs more, smarter ones. Launching in BC first, where the climate need is real. Happy to answer questions.
Vince Grabbas – Should we make an effort to reduce our reliance on an untrustworthy trading partner or not?
Criticizing from the cheap seats without any actual responsibility is easy. Steering the country with real responsibility and accountability is considerably more challenging.
Talk is cheap. Whisky costs money.
Does Brookfield sell greenhouses.
I doubt this will bring down food costs. Let’s see the numbers behind it
It was not very useful to have a contrarian viewpoint from someone with seemingly no knowledge of the greenhouse industry in Canada.
Now that Carney has announced a program, the 35.9 million sq m of existing greenhouse area will vanish as anything he does must be wrong.
It will take some work but it is definitely worth doing. Look up El Ejido on Google maps. If the Spanish can do it, we can too
There a lot more harder thing to do and Im sure growing indoor all year is not one of them. Might be slow at first, but it’s doable.
Carney said it could be done and it will be done, whatever the cost.
Even if we have to bulldoz tens of billions of dollars into our ever expanding 1.4 trillion dollar national debt black hole.
Typical Carney all talk and no real thought going into a project like that, but he makes the announcement to gain popularity and political points knowing the Canadians desperate to grasp on any solution to high food prices will cheer this on. He is as useless as Trudeau was, is all talk and no real results.
So how can Denmark and the Netherlands do it
The problem is taxes and regulations not CEA technology
While I have been an advocate of these for quite some time, liberal carbon, plastic, and packaging taxes will make these unsustainable and unaffordable.