OTTAWA – The Honourable Christian Paradis, Secretary of State for Agriculture and Member of Parliament for Mégantic—L’Érable, said today he was pleased that the Throne Speech had reaffirmed the commitment by the Government of Canada to supply management. Mr. Paradis is also happy to see that the Throne Speech contains an ambitious vision for the agricultural sector as a whole. 

The paragraph in the Throne Speech dealing with agriculture states: “The agricultural sector will benefit from our government’s promotion of biofuels and the new Growing Forward agricultural framework. Our government will recognize the views of farmers, as expressed in the recent plebiscite on barley, by enacting marketing choice. Together with our government’s strong support for Canada’s supply management system, these approaches will deliver stable, predictable and bankable support for farmers’ families.”

“The supply management system for the dairy, poultry and egg industries provides producers with stable and predictable income while ensuring quality products for consumers,” commented Minister Paradis. “Defending supply management was one of the Conservative Party’s election promises, and we are keeping our word.”

Since it was elected, the Conservative Government under Stephen Harper has put in place a number of positive measures to strengthen supply management. The government used GATT Article 28 to limit imports of milk proteins. In order to ensure better protection for consumers, it has also brought in compositional standards for cheeses. In addition, the government has mandated Canada’s negotiators at the WTO to strongly defend supply management.