TORONTO – The Conservative party’s support for supply management came under question last week during a national candidates’ agriculture debate.
Although much of the Jan. 13 televised agriculture debate staged at the University of Toronto featured agriculture minister Andy Mitchell under attack from his parliamentary critics, Conservative critic Diane Finley found herself facing skepticism about the party policy on marketing.
She restated party policy that supports supply management while promising to end the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly.
“We believe all producers should have a choice in how they market their products,” the Ontario MP said during a debate organized by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and broadcast nationally on the political television channel CPAC. “Poultry and dairy farmers have a choice in how they market their product but western Canadian wheat farmers do not.”
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New Democrat MP and agriculture critic Charlie Angus pounced. His party supports the CWB monopoly.
“We’re not talking about voluntary,” he said. “We are talking about killing it (the CWB).”
He noted that supply management is a compulsory system and speculated that a Conservative government would follow through on its voluntary marketing principle to also undermine the dairy and poultry marketing systems.
“Not true,” responded Finley.
Still, the exchange drew an uneasy response from CFA president Bob Friesen who also noted that Finley was wrong to say dairy, poultry and egg producers have a marketing choice.
“If you say you support supply management but in the same breath say you are going to deregulate the Canadian Wheat Board, that would concern me,” he said after the debate. “If they said they will ask farmers if they want to continue with the Canadian Wheat Board, that would be different, but if they are going to arbitrarily deregulate the CWB without making it a farmer decision, then you have to ask them how firm is their commitment to supply management.”
Finley said she understands farmers do not have the right to produce dairy, poultry and egg products outside the existing quota system, but insisted that it is farmers’ choice to maintain the system. Meanwhile, western grain producers have less choice than their Ontario counterparts.
“Dairy farmers, egg producers and the poultry folks have their choice of marketing,” she said. “They like supply management. They’re begging us to defend supply management. But why should western wheat and barley growers be treated differently from those in Ontario?”
Meanwhile, Conservative leader Stephen Harper used a Jan. 12 letter to Canada’s premiers to insist that while a Conservative government would pursue a trade-liberalizing World Trade Organization deal to help exporters gain new markets, the party will defend supply management.
“We also believe it is in the best interest of Canada and Canadian agriculture that the industries under the protection of supply management remain viable,” he wrote. “We will support supply management and its goal to deliver a high quality product to consumers for a fair price with a reasonable return to the producer. Canada needs efficient production planning, market-based returns to producers and predictable imports to operate domestic supply management systems.”
In Toronto, the supply management exchange was part of a lively 80-minute debate on agriculture policy that often saw Mitchell on the defensive, lauding the government record since 2004 while insisting that flaws in existing programs will be corrected by a re-elected Liberal government.
