Supply management bill on the ropes as Senate seeks to pursue study

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OTTAWA — Time is running out for the Senate to vote on one of the Bloc Québécois’ two key demands before its ultimatum of Oct. 29 after which it will push for an election.

This week, farming groups and former trade negotiators took turns trying to convince the upper chamber to either support or reject the Bloc’s private member’s bill to protect supply management from future trade negotiations.

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The legislation is currently being studied in the Senate committee on foreign affairs and international trade.

The chair of the committee, Sen. Peter Boehm, said the study of Bill C-282 is expected to continue until the final week of October and clause-by-clause consideration of the bill will “hopefully” start in November, with a final vote in the Senate to take place afterwards.

Boehm, a former diplomat, has already stated that he does not think it is in “Canada’s national interest” to pass the bill because it would impact future trade negotiations.

But the snail’s pace at which the bill is slowly making its way into law is creating frustration in the House of Commons and in the Senate, which both sides saying the upper chamber cannot hold up a bill that has been democratically passed by a clear majority in the House of Commons.

The government voted in favour of the legislation last year, as did most Liberal MPs, the Bloc, the NDP and the Greens. The Conservatives were split on the vote.

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Sen. Marc Gold, the government’s representative in the Senate, said the timeline announced by Boehm for the study of the bill is “unjustifiably lengthy,” given that the committee has had the bill since April.

“Bill C-282 was passed with overwhelming support of all parties in the democratically elected House of Commons, and, on principle, the Senate must respect that,” he said in a statement.

“Whether or not a senator agrees with its objectives, Bill C-282 does not come close to meeting the high threshold for a Senate veto. There is no principle at play that would make it even remotely appropriate for the Senate to defeat it,” he added.

Gold said he hopes that the committee will “rework its plan so that the Senate as a whole may achieve the work entrusted to us by elected MPs respectfully and with alacrity.”

Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet said many senators think the bill should pass but that Boehm and Sen. Peter Harder, who is also opposed to it, are throwing spanners in the works to make sure that does not happen.

“Those two are completely out of line with their mandate as senators… they need to be called to order,” he said.

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Sen. Pierre Dalphond also said he is confident that a majority of senators will ultimately adopt the bill and urged the committee to speed up the process.

“The final decision on this bill belongs to senators in third reading, not to a committee,” he said in an interview.

Even the Liberals’ Quebec lieutenant, Jean-Yves Duclos, said he and others have communicated to senators that the delays in committee to pass the bill are unreasonable.

C-282 seeks to amend the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Act to ensure that the Minister of Foreign Affairs cannot make trade concessions to dairy products, poultry or eggs, all under supply management.

Blanchet has said that he wants this bill and another bill to increase old age security for seniors aged 65 to 74 years old to receive royal assent as of Oct. 29. If not, he intends to start negotiating with other opposition parties to bring down the government.

While the issue of protecting supply management is politically savvy in many parts of the country that depend on farming, the proposed legislation has raised a number of issues about future trade negotiations.

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Deanna Horton, a negotiator on the original NAFTA, told the Senate committee she worries taking supply management off the table could have a negative impact on the upcoming renegotiation of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) which is scheduled for 2026.

“This is kind of like waving a red flag. You know the bull is coming to you. But is it really necessary to anger the bull before you get into the ring? This is exactly what this bill will do,” she said.

Colin Robertson, who was also involved in negotiating NAFTA, said the Americans might be looking to go after other agricultural sectors, like beef and pork, or even critical minerals if they cannot touch supply management.

“They’ll want more. That’s how the Americans work. So, we know where they’re coming from, and we are under no illusions that this is already being discussed and prepared, both in the current administration, in a potential Trump administration, and within Congress itself,” he said.

But dairy, poultry and egg producers have argued that supply management has already served as a bargaining chip in recent trade negotiations and that more concessions would hurt the sector.

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Brian Bilkes of the Canadian Hatching Egg Producers said that supply management represents less than one per cent of Canadian tariff lines in trade negotiations.

“Yet, we are repeatedly asked to concede this small but vital part of our economy,” he said.

Bruce Muirhead, a professor at the University of Waterloo who studies agricultural policy, said after much research that supply management is the best system in Canada and should be preserved.

He gave the example of Australia which deregulated its dairy industry in 2001 and has now started importing butter and cheese for the first time.

“That could be Canada’s future too if the supply managed system is given away in dribs and drabs in trade negotiations,” said Muirhead.

But Dave Carey of the Canadian Canola Farmers said C-282 is not an agriculture bill and would constrain negotiators’ ability to come to the best trade deals. He also said it would set a “dangerous precedent” for all sectors to seek exclusions.

Cathy Jo Noble from the National Cattle Feeders’ Association said the bill is already negatively impacting Canada’s reputation and that trading partners are telling her organization they are “watching with concern.”

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“If this bill was protecting the auto sector instead of supply management, it would still be bad trade policy,” she said.

Noble added that politicians should not be taking over the role of trade negotiators.

“Respectfully, I think politicians and certainly Parliament as a whole has a role and a right to set boundaries and terms and conditions for trade negotiators,” shot back Gold.

After Canadians enjoy their supply managed Thanksgiving turkey, Parliament will be on a break week and come back the week after next. That means that senators will have only days to wrap up their study on the bill if it wants to respect the Bloc’s ultimatum.

Already, some senators aren’t sure what to make of the opposing views that are presented to them.

“I feel like we’re trying to thread a needle here,” said Sen. Gwen Boniface this week.

National Post
calevesque@postmedia.com

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