Last month the federal government announced another “compensation” package for dairy farmers. Canadian dairy farmers have been deprived of 3.5 percent of our dairy market to European cheese under the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with the European Union, 3.5 percent more to Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership countries, and under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada […] Read more
Stories by Jan Slomp
Milk pricing system fair for everyone
A front-page story in a recent edition of the Toronto Star claimed to be an investigative report about milk in the grocery stores. While it is an interesting account of different practices of several dairy farmers, it comes to wrong and misleading conclusions that don’t do justice to the realities of conventional and organic milk, […] Read more
Saving our supply managed beacons
With U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” rhetoric, it looked like NAFTA renegotiations would end in a stalemate. However, Canadian giveaways to appease Trump are keeping talks for a reformed North American Free Trade Agreement alive. Farmers and consumers must not be complacent regarding the federal government’s political commitments to defend supply management against Trump’s […] Read more
Site C decision rewards renegades
Hydroelectric dam in its early stages on the Peace River
When British Columbia’s new government was sworn in last spring, many people hoped for a renewed respect for treaty rights and First Nation communities. The promise to have the B.C. Utility Commission report on the construction plans of Site C was encouraging. When the report was issued in October, there were even more reasons to […] Read more
Remove the heat from tax debate
The federal government is proposing changes to the Income Tax Act aimed at collecting revenue from corporations that are using certain measures as loopholes to shelter profits from being taxed at the same rate as other Canadians’ income. There is a heated debate in the farm community about these tax proposals, largely because some organizations […] Read more
SARM delegates aim at wrong target
The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities has called on the federal government to expand the legal justification for self-defence. In March, 93 percent of delegates at SARM’s annual convention voted in favour of a resolution indicating they believe rural residents do not have adequate rights to protect themselves or their property. It is frustrating when […] Read more
Rural Canada can’t afford trade giveaways
In the decades since the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement and later the North American Free Trade Agreement were signed, Canadian agriculture has undergone a significant shift. There was once a multitude of diverse local and regional economic drivers, but now we have a one-size-fits-all, export-driven, low-priced commodity production model. Farm capital needs have sky-rocketed […] Read more
Democracy, supply management threatened
The Trans-Pacific Partnership’s Investor State Dispute Settlement mechanism gives foreign corporations the right to sue our government if they believe their future profits will be reduced as a result of democratically enacted measures. While ISDS puts a chill on public interest regulation, the TPP also has more insidious ways of overturning democratic decision-making and imposing […] Read more
Conference board report self serving
The Conference Board of Canada embraces the mantra that “all growth is good.” Its plan to change supply management for growth is a prescription for weakening, if not eliminating, the three pillars of supply management for dairy production in Canada — production controls, import tariffs and farmers’ cost of production pricing — to produce more […] Read more
Backlog in grain, backlog in democracy
Believe it or not, there is a relationship between the backlog in prairie grain and the Fair Elections Act. Here’s how. As prairie farmers wait anxiously for the backlog in grain transportation to be resolved and for prices that at least cover the cost of production, agriculture minister Gerry Ritz and friends continue to meet […] Read more
