WINNIPEG – There were, to be sure, issues that divided the 11 agriculture ministers when they met for three days last week.
“There were regional differences that surfaced during the meeting,” Manitoba minister Harry Enns said July 6.
They were evident when the talk turned to supply management reform, grain shipping issues and designing and funding safety nets. But there also were issues that united the ministers from different provinces and political parties.
Approval of the federal government’s tough stance in trade negotiations with the Americans was at the top of the list.
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Stand firm
Federal minister Ralph Goodale assured the other ministers he would not follow an American invitation to trade off greater access for Canadian grain into the U.S. against greater American dairy, poultry and egg product access into Canada.
Provincial min-isters assured him they supported that approach.
“It is support that we give with enthusiasm,” Enns told a July 6 news conference.
Other issues that won federal-provincial support included:
- Agreement to continue with reforms to the food inspection system that include national standards, an end to duplication between federal and provincial inspectors or inspectors from different federal departments and a commitment that provinces will not use inspection standards to block food imports from other provinces.
- A promise to continue working toward reducing interprovincial trade barriers. There were no hard decisions made on ending specific barriers, but agreement to continue working on such issues as potato grades, beef labelling and common rules for margarine coloring and fluid milk production and distribution.
- Renewing a commitment to help the food industry increase exports by almost 50 percent to $20 billion and capture 3.5 percent of world markets by the end of the decade.
- Agreement to develop “country of origin” labelling for food products so Canadian consumers will know which are domestically produced.
Buy Canadian
Ontario minister Elmer Buch-anan led the debate, suggesting consumers will be more likely to buy Canadian product but often don’t know which is which.
He said that in a Winnipeg store last week, he saw potatoes certified with a Canadian grade. The fine print indicated they were imports from the United States.
“My sense is that consumers want to buy Canadian,” he said in an interview. “As governments, we should make it easier for them to identify the product through country-of-origin labels.”
