OTTAWA – The Consumers’ Association of Canada should lose its government funding if it continues to campaign against supply management, said a former federal agriculture minister.
Ralph Ferguson, briefly an agriculture minister in 1984 and long-time Liberal MP, told a Commons committee recently that the CAC has been irresponsible in its criticism of supply management.
“They are on a witch hunt,” he said in a later interview. “That’s fine, but they shouldn’t be publicly funded to do it.”
For years, the CAC has published studies critical of higher prices set by marketing boards for dairy, chicken and egg products.
Ferguson, who did not run for re-election last year, said the consumers’ lobby campaign against marketing boards has ignored food quality, security of supply and Canadian jobs.
“They should be cut off.”
The Consumers’ Association did not respond to requests for comments.
