OTTAWA – Quebec farmers would find billions of dollars worth of business in jeopardy if the province opts to leave Canada, agriculture minister Ralph Goodale warned last week.
He was responding to Bloc QuŽbecois arguments that in the event of separation, Canada would have no option but to negotiate a new supply management deal with Quebec.
“By the very fundamental definition of supply management, the domestic market of a producing country is preserved primarily for the benefit of that country’s domestic producers,” said Goodale.
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“A separate Quebec would obviously no longer be part of the Canadian domestic market. As a result, the dairy industry in Quebec could be placed in a very substantial jeopardy.”
BQ MPs called that fear-mongering.
They used part of the Oct. 18 Commons Question Period to complain the federal agriculture department discriminates against Quebec.
They also wanted Goodale to concede that Quebec farmers who depend on supply management rules have nothing to fear from separation.
“Does the minister acknowledge that Canada will negotiate to preserve the supply management system, for if the laws of the marketplace were to apply, we Quebecers would come out on top because we in Quebec have the production and the most profitable producers?” asked MP Michel Bellehumeur. “That is the truth.”
Goodale said there is no such guarantee that the supply management system would be renegotiated. The system provides $1.3 billion in receipts to Quebec’s 12,000 dairy farmers, more than 20,000 rural jobs and $2 billion worth of dairy quota.
He also discounted a charge from Bloc MP Jean Leroux that Quebec gets just 10 percent of federal spending although it represents 21 percent of the Canadian industry.
Goodale said that does not take into account the benefits Quebec receives from the supply management system, which is part of federal farm policy for the province.
He said the best way for Quebec farmers to preserve their advantages is to work for “a clear and decisive no on Oct. 30.”
In fact, Quebec farm leader Laurent Pellerin said recently he expects most Quebec farmers will vote yes in the Quebec referendum, because they believe the benefits of supply management would continue to be available.
