Despite a Liberal decision to accept the federal throne speech rather than trigger an election, MP Wayne Easter says one of the key agricultural promises is a lie.
The throne speech debated in Parliament last week said the Conservative government would continue “strongly supporting our supply-managed sectors at home and in international negotiations.”
However, Easter said in the House of Commons that Conservative actions in Geneva last June, when a draft agricultural text was being debated at the World Trade Organization, told a different story. It would have sharply cut supply management protective tariffs and increased the amount of dairy, poultry and eggs that could enter the country at lower tariffs.
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Talks broke down before Canada had to take a position on the text and Canadian representatives refused to say how they would have voted had it come to that.
“The government did not agree to it, but it did not disagree either,” Easter told the Commons while answering a question from a Bloc Québécois MP who wondered if by voting for the throne speech, Liberals were saying they agreed that the Conservatives support supply management.
“What saved Canada’s supply management producers’ bacon was the fact that India and China basically pulled out of the deal.”
Had talks been successful, Easter said, the Conservatives would have signed.
“That is what was on the table,” he said. “The Conservative government was willing to coalesce on that issue. That would have destroyed supply management in this country.”
On Nov. 25, Manitoba Conservative MP James Bezan repeated the government pledge.
“We will continue to support and strengthen supply management in this country and carry its message strongly and clearly to any international discussions we have at the World Trade Organization,” he said.
However, Bezan, who chaired the agriculture committee in the last Parliament, was not as bullish about the ability of the country’s safety net programs to help all farmers hurting from low prices and high input costs.
“We know that the biggest challenge for farmers these days is not just managing the marketplace, animal health or trade issues. It is being cash flow managers.”
Bezan warned that the economic turmoil could make credit difficult to arrange for many farmers. He also said the $500 million four year agriculture program flexibility fund could be used to supplement existing support programs. He did not support using it to finance province-specific programs.
