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Better Farming
December 2016
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55
THE
HILL
The ongoing supply management debate
The dairy and poultry industries are once again working to defend the system – this time from increased
imports that would follow implementation of proposed trade deals with Europe and Pacific nations.
by BARRY WILSON
I
t should surprise no one that
disgruntled Quebec dairy farmers
were among the first to drizzle – if
not rain – on Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau’s so-far successful parade. In
its almost-half century of existence as
a quasi-marketing monopoly for
dairy, poultry and egg perishables
that depends on legislation and politi-
cal support, farmers never have been
reluctant to take on their political
benefactors when they think the
politicians’ support is wavering,
particularly those producers from
Quebec.
Then Agriculture Minister Eugene
Whelan’s milk bath on Parliament
Hill in the 1970s comes to mind, as
well as the relentless lobbying and
sometimes violent farmer demonstra-
tions when Canadian politicians have
been involved in trade negotiations
that threatened system protections.
So when Canada’s 23rd prime min-
ister, buoyed by almost a year of
walking on political waters of public
approval, arrived in Quebec’s
Saguenay region in late August for a
Liberal caucus meeting, more than
300 dairy farmers were there. They
had tractors and signs to protest the
lack of federal action to stop duty-free
imports of diafiltered milk protein
from the United States. Supply
management sectors say these
imports are costing Canadian pro-
ducers many millions of dollars in
lost sales.
These protests are the latest battle
of many that system-dependent
beneficiaries have waged against
free-market critics since supply
management’s creation in the 1960s
and 1970s. These days, proposed
trade deals with Europe and Pacific
nations threaten to undermine the
system if approved.
Supply management was created to
support farmers undercut by cheap
imports and unregulated markets.
Federal legislation was passed in 1971
after a fierce House of Commons
battle that pitted Alberta Progressive
Conservative Jack Horner (later to be
a Liberal minister) against agriculture
minister Bud Olson (a former Alberta
Social Credit MP turned Liberal).
The result of the Tory campaign
was that the cattle industry was
excluded from the system but the