A leading dairy industry spokesperson has denounced as “naive” and “misguided” a proposal from a Reform MP that the federal government organize a massive buyout of dairy quota, much as it paid off the Crow Benefit subsidy for grain farmers.
Alberta MP Leon Benoit, deputy agriculture critic for the Reform party, said a quota buyout would take some built-in costs out of the milk production system and allow dairy farmers to produce for less.
“It would allow them to be more competitive and to cope better with freer trade,” he said. “The trend is to more open trade. I think the government should do more to help the dairy industry prepare.”
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He said rather than concentrate on protecting domestic market share, the dairy industry should be preparing itself to compete for foreign market share.
Getting costs down would be part of it.
For John Core, Ontario Milk Producers’ Marketing Board chair and vice-president of Dairy Farmers of Canada, the suggestion is a non-starter.
He said in an interview the problem with the ability of the Canadian dairy industry to compete is not quota value. It is built-in American subsidies which allow their milk prices to stay low.
“This just shows that the Reform party does not understand the issue,” said Core. “The issue is not quota value. We could not compete in the U.S. as long as they have subsidies built into the system that we do not have.”
He said Reform does not appear to understand the fact of foreign agriculture subsidies.
“The Reform party seems to suggest we should do away with supply management, compensate them and then let them compete,” he said. “But that competition would be unfair.”
Benoit has argued that falling tariff protection levels mean supply management is doomed.
The industry, its leaders and the government should do what is necessary to prepare farmers for that eventual outcome.
