Politician says plan to end supply management wouldn’t compensate ‘somebody who has received a quota for free’
Supply management will end and farmers’ quotas will be prorated if the People’s Party of Canada becomes the next government.
“I will have a transition period of four to eight years,” said party leader Maxime Bernier.
“We’ll buy back their quota. People who want to stay in their industry, they will be able to put that (money) in being more productive. And people who don’t want to stay in the industry, they will take the money and leave the industry,” said Bernier during a meeting with The Western Producer’s editorial board in Saskatoon Nov. 29.
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Bernier said there is no way to reconcile free-market principles while “pandering” to supply management interests, which is inefficient, unfair to Canadian consumers and most farmers.
“We’re doing politics differently. We won’t try to please every special interest group. I’m here today and speaking to you and to the farmers, but I don’t have any special policies for your people (farmers),” he said.
“It’s unfair for 90 percent of the farmers in Canada that are not under supply management.”
Scrapping supply management was one of the main topics that dominated Bernier’s Conservative party leadership election platform in 2016, which he said is a government cartel, opposite of free markets and not compatible with conservative principles.
“If you want to have a true democracy in this country, you must have policies that will be good for all Canadians. And so that policy on supply management, it is not good for the consumers.”
Bernier said in ending supply management, he would rely on a study by the Business (Economic) Council of Canada, which used a prorated system that suggested a figure of $3 to $5 billion to compensate producers.
“Somebody who has received a quota for free, we won’t reimburse that, but if you are a dairy producer and you bought quota a year ago, you will be fully reimbursed,” he said.
“So we’ll have a ratio and will go on the book value. We have to be fair.”
He thinks going to a consumer market-driven system would decrease the number of dairy farms in Canada by two or three percent as farmers took the quota buy-out plan.
