OTTAWA – On the eve of the Reform party’s release of the election platform it hopes will attract votes in rural and small town Ontario, two Reform MPs took some verbal shots at the supply management system considered an economic backbone in many Ontario ridings.
During a House of Commons debate on a Canada-Israel free trade agreement which excludes supply managed products, Alberta MP and grain farmer Charlie Penson called continuing government support for supply management a contradiction.
“We want free trade in other countries, we want access to their markets but we will not provide it for the supply managed farm industry here at home,” the Reform trade critic complained.
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The harshest comments, however, came from Reform finance critic Herb Grubel.
Well known critic
The former Simon Fraser University professor has been a long-time critic of supply management as an economic affront and a tax on consumers.
He takes pride in bragging that farm marketing board defenders have reviled him for a booklet he wrote on the issue. It now is used as a text in some universities.
“I just cannot believe that a system increases the value of farms and quotas to such an extent that it is now more costly to buy the right to sell milk at an inflated price than it costs to buy the land, the farm and the animals,” said Grubel. “There is something very wrong.”
The Canada-Israel free trade agreement, with the exclusion of supply management, was approved by the Commons.
Reform party MPs say rather than support supply management, the government should be letting affected farmers know the system cannot be sustained in a free trade environment.
It then should offer help to prepare for open market competition.
