Quebec dairy farmer André Campeau traveled more than 600 kilometres on a cold December day from his farm south of Quebec City to demonstrate against Ottawa’s dairy policies.
He brought more than 260 fellow farmers on buses to join 4,000 others in a Dec. 18 march through Ottawa and then a rally in front of Agriculture Canada’s head office.
He was less than impressed by how the protest was organized.
“The first thing my farmers said on the way home was they were disappointed,” he said last week during the annual policy convention of Dairy Farmers of Canada. “It was a bit disorganized. We couldn’t hear the speeches. It was disappointing.”
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Campeau was even less impressed when he found out how much it cost.
DFC reported that it spent $150,000 to organize the three-hour protest against dairy substitute imports and dairy pricing that gave farmers less than they requested.
A number of Quebec delegates angrily questioned how it could have cost that much and been so poorly planned.
More than half the expenses – $80,000 – went to an unnamed consulting company hired to organize the event.
“It was a big event to organize on short notice,” said DFC treasurer Sylvie Larose. “We had to go outside our walls.”
DFC executive secretary Richard Doyle conceded that there had been problems with logistics and the sound system: “We would do some things differently if we had to redo it.”
But he defended the decision to hire consultants, noting that negotiations for permits were required with various levels of government, and transportation had to be arranged to bring dairy farmers from across the country.
He also insisted that for all the problems, the rally was a success.
“It was a media event and from a media point of view, we had about four hours of television coverage across the country,” said Doyle. “That is a lot of media visibility.”
He said the consultant understood there had been problems and had refunded $6,000 of its fee after DFC complaints.
Campeau still was not impressed.
“I think $6,000 isn’t a lot of money when they received $80,000,” he grumbled.
The rally also created some interprovincial tension inside DFC.
Quebec dairy farmers were the main push behind it and provided most of the protesters.
Dairy Farmers of Ontario refused to take part because its board thought it would be a poor image to be protesting just days after the Canadian Dairy Commission announced a 3.9 percent increase in prices. Some Ontario farmers took part without their group’s official sanction.
