I Do Not Want to Hear One More Word from Any Sitting MP or Senator About High Grocery Prices Now that They Voted Unanimously in Favour of Higher Grocery Prices
That also goes for any previous MP, like Pierre Poilievre, who voted in favour of Bill C-202's predecessor when he did have a seat in the House of Commons
Well, the Canadian Senate just voted unanimously in favour of Bill C-202, which:
…sought to amend the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Act to prevent the minister from “making a commitment” that would increase the tariff rate quota for dairy, poultry, or eggs in trade negotiations. It would also prevent tariff reductions on these products when they are imported in excess.
In other words, supply management has been “taken off the table” in any — not just U.S. — trade negotiations. This vote was conducted after the House of Commons previously voted unanimously in favour of this Bill.
Effectively, every MP and Senator — whether Conservative, Liberal, NDP, Green, Bloc, or Independent — voted in favour of higher grocery prices for all Canadians. And to make it worse, they have also voted in favour of allowing a separatist party to dictate our international trade policies.
One argument often made in favour of supply management is it “protects family farms”. On the contrary, in the dairy industry alone, the number of farms has fallen from 145,000 to roughly 9,000 since supply management started, so they are not all that protected. Supply management really only protects large farms who can get the quotas.
In fact, that is one goal of a cartel: keep the number of members low so it is easier to maintain the collusive agreement. The cartel members win and everyone else loses — except the politicians who crave votes in Quebec.
Another argument for supply management is health and animal welfare standards, and the U.S. is often cited as a very bad source of dairy, eggs, and poultry in those respects. However, Canada can still regulate all dairy, eggs, and poultry sold in Canada — both due to domestic production and in terms of imports — for health and animal welfare reasons without supply management.
There is nothing getting in the way of our governments from enforcing these standards — which already exist outside supply management.
Furthermore, Canada has the power to block imports from the U.S. without dumping milk down drains to keep prices high. Donald Trump has already proven many times that international trade agreements with his country are not worth the paper on which they are printed, so there is nothing stopping us from strengthening trade barriers against that country, with or without supply management.
And even then, Bill C-202 does not change trade agreements which have already been signed; it only forbids the Canadian government from weakening supply management in future trade deals— even with countries where we have no concerns about their dairy, egg, and poultry industries.
Finally, there is a question which I rarely hear addressed by proponents of supply management: why are dairy, eggs, and poultry so in need of protection, other than they are primarily located in Ontario and Quebec? Why not beef farmers? Grain farmers? Oil producers are also subject to wild market fluctuations, but no one suggests joining OPEC — not even Conservative politicians like Pierre Poilievre who voted in favour of supply management more than once during his years as an MP.
Supply management must end. There is no net-benefit to Canadians which cannot be achieved absent government-mandated cartels which are designed purposely to increase grocery prices for all Canadians, and which also happen to harm both the environment and the animals themselves given the waste purposely created to increase these prices.
And until that happens, I do not want to hear one more goddamn word from any MP or Senator about high grocery prices, because they are clearly just talking out of their asses.