MORGAN: Danielle Smith could save Canada from supply management

Canada’s Soviet-style supply management system on dairy, poultry and eggs has been screwing citizens for decades with higher food prices, obliterated family farms and disrupted international trade deals. The dairy cartels are deeply entrenched in Canada and have effectively cowed every federal political party (so to speak,) including the Conservatives. No major federal leader will dare question supply management for fear of upsetting Quebec which benefits from the program. The standoff on this terrible policy robs Canadians of billions.Premier Danielle Smith may prove to be the catalyst that finally breaks the system. Supply management serves Alberta poorly and she can make a solid case as to why the province should exit the system. Smith has nothing to fear from the wrath of Quebec. If anything, enraging Quebec only bolsters her support back home.Alberta has some of the richest agricultural land in North America. It also has some of the most experienced and successful farmers and ranchers. When freed from the shackles of Canada’s supply management system, we can look forward to a more diverse, value-added agricultural industry that benefits all Albertans..Currently, dairy quotas predominantly go to Quebec producers. It is illegal to produce eggs, milk, chickens or turkeys without the government-issued quota. Those quotas cost $25,000 per cow in Quebec and nearly twice as much in the West. This is how small operations are killed. An Albertan farmer was recently jailed for the crime of selling his own eggs. The system is obscene in its control and infringement upon free markets. Albertans pay inflated prices for food products due to the purposeful strangulation of supply due to the system. In any other industry, this sort of price fixing would be illegal. Canadian dairy producers have literally dumped more than 6 billion litres of milk down the drain over the last few years, because it would be illegal for them to sell it or even to give it away. Quite a slap in the face for families struggling to meet their food budget.This system has led to Canada having fewer dairy farmers with larger concentrations in Quebec. When supply management was first imposed upon farmers, there were over 140,000 dairy farms in Canada. Now there are only about 9,000, and that number is dropping. Only large, corporate operations can afford the quotas and they have squeezed out small producers..New Zealand and Australia had supply management systems imposed in the 1970s but they wisely dropped those systems years ago. Because they got rid of supply management, their dairy industries have flourished and both countries have turned into very successful exporters of agricultural products. Alberta could do the same.Defenders of the dairy cartels try to claim that if we got rid of the wretched quota system, we would suddenly be flooded with dairy products without quality regulations. This is just a ridiculous and outright lie. Quality control standards have nothing to do with their price-fixing scheme, and the standards won’t change when the racket is dismantled. They also claim we would be flooded with allegedly inferior American products if we get rid of the quota system. Again, this is a lie. The tariff system blocking American dairy goods has nothing to do with quotas. American dairy products are neither inferior nor dangerous anyway. If one doesn’t want them, just don’t buy American. With a strong domestic dairy industry unbound by supply management, we won’t need to import dairy products anyway. We can be exporters of everything from powered milk to cheese to ice cream. We can compete..Supply management defenders are making the case that Canadian producers are so incompetent, that if we got rid of the quota system, they would go broke. Perhaps some are. Let them go then. The strong will survive. Just as they do in every other industry.We can't get rid of the system overnight. An addict must be weaned from their drug of choice or they may die in withdrawal. The system must be dismantled in stages over years and a degree of compensation must go to quota holders. There is no better time to start that process than now.Supply management benefits Quebec thus no federal party will dare question it. If we want to break free, it must be a provincial initiative and we can’t initiate it soon enough..As with the pension plan, the RCMP and the collection of our taxes, supply management is another policy area where Alberta must step up and take control for itself.When the federalists complain about Alberta standing up for itself, the response should be the same: “Whatcha going to do about it?”What will they do? Stop buying our milk? They already don’t. Stop buying our oil? They already don’t.Punish us with regionally based taxes? They already do. If Premier Smith breaks the dairy cartel in Alberta, it will lead to the end of it across Canada. Everybody will benefit. It begins with putting Alberta first.

MORGAN: Danielle Smith could save Canada from supply management

Related Stories