A bill sponsored by the Bloc Québécois will make it harder to reform Canada’s supply management system.
The first bill passed in the House of Commons during this parliamentary session was Bill C-202. The bill, sponsored by Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet, passed unanimously through the committee stage and third reading.
The bill seeks to restrict the foreign affairs minister and ministry from engaging in negotiations with other countries to alter Canada’s supply management system.
The foreign affairs minister would be prohibited from negotiating trade agreements that increase the supply management quota, allowing more imports without being hit with a tariff, or reduce the tariff rate on imports gone over quota.
The legislation comes in response to concerns from supporters of supply management that the government would be willing to axe components of the system to appease U.S. President Donald Trump in trade negotiations.
During the bill’s second reading, the Bloc moved a motion to fast-track it through Parliament, with the Conservatives, Liberals, and NDP allowing the motion to pass without objection.
The Bloc Québécois celebrated the passage of Bill C-202, touting it as an accomplishment in fulfilling the party’s campaign promises.
“Our bill protecting supply management has been adopted! It’s a great day for our agriculture and for the people who get up early to put food on our tables!” reads a translated post from the Bloc’s social media.
While the bill did not face any objection from Canada’s political class, concerns remain regarding supply management and the effect that C-202 will have in preventing reforms to the system.
Bill C-202 now heads to the Senate, where it must pass before becoming law.
David Clement, the North American Affairs Managerr at the Consumer Choice Center, told True North that supply management results in higher prices for Canadian consumers while lining the pockets of farmers.
“Supply management is a system that fails to meet its core objectives, beyond giving quota holders a substantial and inflated source of income. The cost to consumers domestically is significant. Canadian consumers pay 20 to 30 per cent more for milk than Americans do,” said Clement.
“The approximately 10,000 or so supply managed farmers benefit via artificially inflated incomes. The net income quota owners receive after all production expenses have been paid has increased from $161,000 in 2013 to $246,000 in 2022, when the median individual income was only $43,100. And while incomes increased by nearly 53 per cent over that time period, total milk production in Canada only increased by 15.5 per cent.”
Clement says that the legislation will make it harder to reform supply management, and that the only reason the Bloc supports the system is because of the concentration of supply-managed farmers in Quebec.
“Yes, it will make it far less likely that we reform supply management because it will remove external pressure for us to do so. Supply management has been a major problem in nearly every trade negotiation, but those negotiations have opened some access to the Canadian market,” said Clement. “Without that external pressure, I feel that there won’t be the political courage domestically to unwind supply management.”