Super glad to see Rob join the writers for The Line, and hope it continues. You won't agree with Rob all of the time (nor should you) but he's a strong writer who defends his opinions. Obviously The Line still has its own editorial policies, but I look forward to Rob's opinions on subjects perhaps a bit less constrained by the editorial policies of Corus or Postmedia.
As someone who both grew up in and has made my career in the agricultural-environmental sector, this topic is very meaningful to me. My own family had a mixed farm that over the decades raised cattle, chickens, geese, grains, oilseeds, flax, and various forage & hay products. My father was a fierce opponent of the Canadian Wheat Board who held our grain production hostage, and our farm prospered when its monopoly ended, allowing us to diversify our grains to supply malt barley for brewing & distilling, feed barley to support cattle feeders, durum wheat for pastas, and hard red spring wheat for baking flour. He also enthusiastically grew canola to support the burgeouning oilseed industry. I know some still mourn the loss of the Wheat Board (which only applied to Western farmers), but our family farm benefited from the freedom that resulted from its demise.
My wife's family made their living in the cattle feeding sector, and her father was part of the executive team of Canadian cattle leaders in the 70s through the 90s that developed our beef export sector to the US and the Asia-Pacific. This benefited both cattle producers and the feed grain farming sector that supported it. By no means is the Canadian cattle feeding sector without its own issues (as cow-calf producers will no doubt note), but the beef industry in Canada is much more diverse than it would have been if these early beef cattle leaders had pursued the cartel model like their dairy and poultry industry neighbours did.
I'm (barely) old enough to remember the era prior to the dairy cartels, when on our farm we received our milk in resusable glass bottles delivered personally from the neighbours' dairy down the road a few miles. Just a few miles from that was a locally owned cheese factory in a tiny community that supplied cheese in Alberta and beyond. Another nearby small commuity had a creamery that processed locally produced milk into all kinds of dairy products. I'm quite certain this was the case across Canada. Since supply management came into Canada in the early 1970s, all that is gone, likely forever. I know I will get pushback on this from those connected to the current dairy industry, but I'd argue today's Canadian dairy products are more expenseive, more homgenized (pun intended), and frankly, less palatable. Canadian butter today is a brickish monstrosity compared to butter served in most other countries in the world, as an example.
I think the hold the dairy cartel has over our politicians and media is down to one simple fact - money. It greases the palms of media and politicos across the spectrum. All industries do this, of course, but the dairy quotas are so lucrative after 50 years (worth millions) that the cartel can quite literally bankroll multiple political candidates of all parties, and make large advertising deals with both social and traditional media. I'm not sure if they've approached The Line's editors with a sponsorship of their offerings, given Matt & Jen (and now Rob's) consistent opinions against supply management. The Line clearly (to this point) appears not to be sponsored by the dairy cartel, or from government, which I applaud them for.
The Line is sponsored by Unsmoke Canada and TikTok Canada, among others. Some may have concerns about both these entities, but as a subscriber (and an independent businessperson myself) I understand that Matt and Jen have to make money at this new media game to survive, and to this point they are ethically okay with those two sponsors. We all have the choice to either subscribe and support them in those choices, or not.
Like most things, this issue is maninly about money and control. For me, I obviously have to support the supply managed dairy and poultry sectors in order to feed my family, but I would love a mindset shift in both industries to not be afraid of foreign competition, but to instead positively view the challenge of competing with their production product offerings to the world, rather than artificially keeping out that competition at the expense of Canadian consumers.
I don't even really like American cheese. I prefer UK, French, or Dutch cheese any day to anything I've tasted from North America, and I'm a third generation Canadian. That might change, if new Canadian and foreign dairy and poultry producers were able to enter the market, and compete with newer, more interesting product choices.
Well said. I would not mind paying higher for good quality, but we pay high prices for very poor quality dairy products. Sure, are cheese, butter, milk, and yogurt may be better than what you normally get in America, but when compared to what you get in Europe we are getting hosed. The quality difference is huge. Whenever I am in Europe, I triple my dairy intake because it is just that good. And it is not specialty products, it is just the run of the mill dairy from any grocery store or restaurant.
I was recently in Italy. The butter was from New Zealand. I was eating like cheese! A simply wonderful full flavour.
The yogurt - many brands. I noted that Parmalat brand in Italy tastes far better than Parmalat Canada yogurt. I guess they have higher standards in Italy and Europe as a whole. I understand Parmalat does not have the best reputation in Europe, both in terms of quality and business ethics. They are owned by a French company but they do not sell product in France. There were other brands of yogurt though and they were so full of taste - even the "Plain" yogurt had a great taste.
Don't get me started on cheese. There are some good cheeses in Canada, but not nearly enough of them. Balderson is not bad, for Canada, but lots of nice Quebec soft cheeses as well. There are some independent small dairies around that produce good product, but they are very pricey. Yet in the UK, you can gourmet style aged cheeses in petrol stations for the cost so a couple of chocolate bars here.
Canadians have been robbed of good taste by supply management, and the dairies that benefit from this system. The real culprits in my mind are the big dairies.
Perhaps if some of the interprovincial trade barriers come down as a results of Matt's Ice Bucket Challenge (credit where it's due) perhaps we will see more interprovincial trade in Canadian cheeses. I sincerely doubt prices will fall, in fact, I expect them to rise. Agree on the Balderson - it was my go-to until I found 3 or 4 UK cheeses that Costco carries.
One commentator once said Canada’s Dairy cartel is to Canada what the NRA is to the US. Only a minority agree with it, but nothing changes.
I get so frustrated when people stalk about how good our dairy products are. They are not. If you think this then please get out in the world and get your eyes opened. Go to France and taste their cheese and butter and then pass judgement. We are being robbed of quality.
In 1939 Europe was on the brink of war, back here at home, the folks of Hillspring, Hartley and Glenwood (Alberta) were fighting a different kind of war. Still suffering from the residual effects of the Great Depression, money was scarce...people weren't going hungry because they had farm produce and large gardens, but cash was still needed ot pay the taxes on the land...many farms were lost under these harsh conditions. During times of great stress something amazing happens. Communities come together in the spirit of cooperation and help each other out. (This spirit of cooperation is still very much alive and well to this day in these communities)
It was in this setting that a group of United Irrigation District (U.I.D.) people struck up a committee to investigate the potential to generate some economic activity. The first meeting was held March 24, 1939. Several ideas were discussed with the building of a cheese factory being the most viable. On July 18, 1941 the boiler was fired up and cheesemaker Ned E. Davidson made the first of many vats of cheese. Within 6 months the cheese factory was making a profit. There were 83,199 pounds of cheese made to the end of 1941. Most of this was sold to Kraft Co in Calgary for $.24 per pound. Milk was received from 128 farmers; this was hauled in by horse drawn vehicles and trucks. The cheese that winter in competition throughout Alberta took all the prizes with a grading of 98.5%. Farmers were paid $1.25 per hundred for milk but the economy of the district from the “milk cheques” took a big jump. Stores reported a boost of 75% in sales due to the increased revenue. Ned Davidson went on to win a great many trophys and awards for his wonderful cheese. Ned retired in 1983 after 43 years of making his award winning cheese. He passed away July 30, 2010 a the ripe age of 97 years.
The U.I.D. and the C.A.D.P (Central Alberta Dairy Pool) cooperatives united in the 1980s with the C.A.D.P. taking responsibility for the cheese factory and not shut it down. Glenwood would keep it's primary employer but it was a bitter pill to swallow. The Glenwood Cheese Factory sign came down and was replaces with Alpha, then later with Dairyland, Armstrong then finally with Saputo in 2000. In 2004 the plant stopped making cheese and started making powdered skim milk dropping their workforce from 80 to 20 people. On March 27, 2014...75 years after the first conception of a cheese factory, Saputo announced that it would be closing the Glenwood factory by 2015.
To read more about our story and the history of the U.I.D. Cheese Factory visit our library on Min Avenue in Glenwood, Alberta behind the town office, much of the history that's been reported here comes from A History of the United Irrigation District Cheese Facroty Cooperative Association Ltd by Dennis J. Prince (637.3 P) and 100 Years Between the Rivers.
Such as shame when a small independent dairy goes out of business. My condolences.
Totally off topic but I have been hoarding Lowney's Cherry Blossom Chocolates for two months now. Hershey's stopped making this iconic Canadian chocolate.
Are you by any chance a professional writer? This is more substantive—and better written—than the article to which it's replying. Your further comment below suggests serious interest in local history as well, and an ability to marshal data. Have you considered writing a personal memoir, or a history of farming in the prairies? Or have you perhaps already done so?
The first comment is my own. I am not a professional writer in the sense that our Line Editors are, but I have extensive experience in technical and commentary writing in my areas of expertise that I've been paid for over the decades. I've been an avid reader on broad subjects my entire life, and definitely have an active interest in natural and human history, especially but not exclusive to my local region.
The subsequent comment on the Glenwood cheese factory the history is not - it is an amalgamation of information from archives of the Glenwood Community Newsletter and a post on this site: https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC57MQ4
which I really should have attributed above. My apologies to the authors of both; my intent was to share their recollection of the cheese factory history, not to pass it off as my own work.
It really was fantastic cheese, as I fondly recall as a youth.
Interesting. Thanks for replying. Don't dismiss the idea of writing a memoir of life on the farm as a retirement project. You make it sound interesting here.
I'm a retired reference librarian with a philosophy M.A., so of course I approve both your reading habits and the breadth of your interests. As it happens, I have over eight thousand books in my home library, mostly literature, philosophy and intellectual history. We now know what no one knew when I was a child: people who read for pleasure at a young age end up out-earning those who don't by a considerable margin; and the act of reading itself puts in place a neurological substrate that makes further learning easier. In this respect it doesn't matter so much what kids read (though obviously it never hurts to read for substantive content) as that they read.
Cheese was essentially absent from my upbringing; my only real recollection of it is my younger brother's predilection for pouring about half a jar of Cheez Whiz into his omelets (yech!). It wasn't until I backpacked through Europe in the 1970s and discovered cheese fondue in Switzerland that I became a convert. Subsequently, I had the good luck to marry a charming Frenchwoman from Marseille; and now our fridge is never without Gruyere, Emmental, goat cheese, Spanish Wine cheese, etc.
The Canadian dairy cartel and all of the subsidized industries elsewhere in the world studiously avoid discussing New Zealand, where the government eliminated dairy subsidies and protections decades ago to familiar predictions of doom. However, the industry has actually flourished. They're also providing a higher quality product than the Canadian producers: pick up a package of New Zealand cheddar at Costco and compare the taste and texture to a Canadian one from the same cooler. Try the butter, if you can get it before the limited quota we're allowed to import is swept off the shelves. It behaves the way butter's supposed to, softening at room temperature and without the weird sticky texture of Canadian butter since Canadian producers decided to goose production (and profit) by adding palm oil additives to their cattle feed.
The whole notion that Canadian farmers couldn't survive the loss of subsidies is probably true for those who refuse to adapt and insist on being sheltered from competition. For the industry as a whole, it's self-serving nonsense.
New Zealand does not import significant amounts of dairy products. Its producers are not at risk of competition from highly subsidized products from other countries but especially the United States.
The U.S. government provides substantial support to its dairy industry through various direct and indirect subsidies. In 2015, these subsidies were estimated to total approximately $22.2 billion, equating to 73% of U.S. dairy farmers’ market returns.
What is more nonsense is the suggestion Canadian Dairy producers could compete price wise with American imports that are highly subsidized with US tax dollars without some form of subsidization.
New Zealand doesn't import because they have a competitive industry. And despite those US subsidies AND US tariffs, New Zealand exports $700 million US of dairy products to the US every year. As I said, the way some Canadian dairy producers react to the prospect of competition suggests to me that THEY need to be sheltered from competition. I don't buy the argument that a Canadian dairy industry couldn't be competitive.
Kudos for the intellectual honesty of this piece. Even if Trump is a total extortionist/mob-style shakedown artist, we cannot possibly hold the high ground if we insist on preserving a dairy cartel while still insisting on the benefits of free trade.
Reading some of the comments here it seems obvious that the Dairy Council of Canada has mounted an incredibly successful media campaign. Anything other than Canadian production is unsafe/unclean/unfit and mostly unpatriotic. They are a cartel plain and simple and sell the Kool Aid that they are here for the good of all Canadians. We pay far too much for their products to protect a few thousand wealthy and well connected operations predominately in the two foundational provinces at the expense of the rest of Canada. When even the protector of the free market Conservatives Andrew Scheer chugs milk at the their leadership convention you know that the fix is in. Soviet style market control should by now be only an historical footnote in Canada and not a millstone hanging around our necks in international trade talks that hugely affect an entire country’s economic well being.
These types of internal trade battles are often carried out in a vacuum of assessment of wider trade implications.
For those who feel an entitlement to cheap food products, especially milk and cheese, well okay. But for Gods sake do the research on the international markets for milk and cheese products.
The author suggests that Canadian milk producers (and by extension the processors) aren’t interested in export markets. Does anyone wonder why? Because the world milk market is one big dumping ground, with surplus production being shoved onto markets at fire sale prices, and governments picking up the slack with subsidies to the producers back home. Are Canadians willing to backstop international milk markets like that? I highly doubt it.
In the end, the current production model isn’t palatable to either domestic consumers or trade partners. Something has to give here and it is going to cost taxpayers a ton of money to buy the quotas back from farm operators. These are legal for trade quotas that are either heavily mortgaged or used as security with lenders. Making the quotas worthless will bankrupt many dairy producers through no fault of their own.
This is a very complicated issue and the farm sector in Canada has very few consolidated votes and almost none that support Liberals west of Ontario. We know that if Canadian trade negotiators are pressed to choose between building cars or milking cows, the cars are going to win. So get on with it and open up the treasury to buy out the quotas at fair market value
I can’t let that comment slide without a rebuttal.
Yes, MANY YEARS AGO quotas were allocated to the producers for free, in exchange for putting a lid on production. This made supply and demand fundamentals even out over time. Cows aren’t widgets. They have an uneven production curve which at calving is high and slowly tapers down until drying off and a period of no production until the next cycle begins.
Getting back to quotas:
They were originally allocated to producers but the average number of cows per farm unit has increased to meet higher consumer demand. The extra quota needed to have more cows is sold at going market prices. This can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars for a dairy operation wanting to expand.
Quota is required by law to milk cows. Many operations use the quota as collateral for security or have quota that is mortgaged because it was purchased. Distilling the value of the quota down to nothing due to international trade negotiations is about as bad faith bargaining as I can think of.
I understand that, I killed a lot of cows in my life. My background is Dutch; in the late eighties and all through the nineties, a lot of Dutchmen, with the money they got from selling their quota in Holland at top dollar, came to Canada. Mostly to Alberta and Ontario. Local Canadian producers (mostly producing out of bank barns and hip roof barns) took the money that was offered by these Dutchmen and left the industry. The inflation of value of quota was artificial. Alongside the Dutchmen, many Mennonite and Hutterite farms also went along in the race to scoop up quota to fill their new state-of-the-art barns. Banks would finance them because these groups provide longevity (their farms are multi generational and amortization over longer term is relatively safe).
The influx of Dutchmen has stopped due to the dutch government letting the quote system die over time in the early 2000’s. We could do this in Canada, release 10% more quota into the system every year for 10 years to slowly bring the value down and shut it down in 10 years. The additional quota causes demand to drop for quota. This is what they did in Holland. It gives farmers 10 years to deal with the leverage issue.
I work a lot with dairy and chicken farmers (I used to farm myself) and my son in law is production manager at a large dairy in Ontario. The value of milk and feather products is based on cost of production. Ok. The thing is that the cost of production is now artificially high because dairy farmers start to include things that aren’t necessary per se. many farmers buy overpriced machinery that only get used a few hours per year, because the predictable increase in price per unit provides borrowing safety, banks allow this to happen. No other farming sector gets away with being leveraged to that extend and to being over-mechanized as well. In Alberta, some large dairies have been buying farmland to do cash cropping. The safe cash flow and high margins allow them to outbid the local grain farmers, driving up land prices past economical sense.
So, there are three problems with supply management:
1. Trade repercussions on other sectors that depend on exports
2. Higher prices in Canada for consumers than necessary
3. Unfair competition by a protected price farm system with farms that are price-unprotected (for resources)
Agreed. The political economy of just cancelling the quotas is going to be terrible. You're going to have Le Devoir etc running sob stories that will result in the CAQ obstructing the Canada East pipeline out of spite.
Far better to just pay the money once and be done with it.
Actually, the deal should be that if the dairy cartel cooperates, we buy out their quotas. If they launch a campaign against ending supply management, they get nothing.
Thank you both for your excellent explanation. Now I understand the difficulty in ending the quotas. The Dutch model looks to me like the way to go - but go we must.
Worth pointing out that nobody bought taxi medallions back from taxi operators when Uber broke that cartel. This is a regulatory risk that dairy farmers have been aware of for years.
A quota used for security with lenders that suddenly becomes worthless risks harm to the lender, it doesn't result in the withdrawal of the loan unless that term was specifically written in - and if it was, that should have been a giant red flag to the dairy producers who leveraged those quotas that they were taking on major risk when they did so.
All the arguments against blowing up supply management systems for dairy/poultry/eggs were the exact same arguments raised against removing the Canadian Wheat Board from the equation.
...and wheat farmers have flourished since they got the CWB out of the way.
This issue has been hampering grain, pork, beef and oilseed farmers for decades. The supply management caused tariffs has always been brought up by Japan and South Korea as an issue. Reciprocal tariffs were put in place, making our products more expensive than those from our US counterparts in these markets. Supply management needs to go.
Yes! It sounded almost like a religious belief coming from Chrystia's debate speech.
Can you share the numbers?
How much money in tariffs is collected to create the secure and safe supply system in each sector - dairy, poultry, eggs? What happens to the money? Who benefits from the tariffs collected? And ultimately, why are our producers not interested in exports?
And why on earth would Parliament enshrine that kind of protectionism into law? Why why why?
The Bloc wanted it, because the dairy-farmers in Quebec are politically powerful. The Liberals are in a minority and needed support.
The grand bargain to end this nonsense is just to have the federal government buy the licenses and then burn them. Then set up a subsidy regime, that other countries are familiar with.
Yes, all the political parties support supply management. This is merely (further) evidence of a corrupt/ossified political structure. Even in the face of Trump's antics nobody seems willing to budge which is mind-blowing. The cartels have to go simply because it is the right thing to do - regardless of how politically expedient such actions would be.
But I don't even accept that there would be negative political ramifications for any party who came for the cartels. I don't have time to make a career out of this issue but per the Agriculture Canada website there are roughly 9,500 dairy farms in Canada (4,400 in Quebec, 3,300 in Ontario and fewer than 500 in every other Province). There are 29,000 jobs in the dairy manufacturing sector and 17,000 jobs in dairy farm ops. This small number of people is going to swing an election in Canada when over 17 million ballots were cast in the last election? I am skeptical - although open to hearing the counter argument. We don't have an Electoral College where 50,000 strategically located voters can so easily determine the outcome.
Furthermore, if the impacts of these cartels were actually explained to the population I think that advocating for their abolition would prove wildly popular to literally millions of voters. For every voter employed in the dairy industry who, due to their apparent employment interest, switches a vote that would have otherwise gone one way (and remember, it won't be ALL of them) I'd bet there would be many, many more voters who would change their vote in the opposite direction. Again, I am open to having my mind changed but based on the evidence available to me I think the policy would be a winner with the electorate overall.
The financial contributions of which you speak are merely a means to an end and not not the end itself - the end being to win the election. In 2023 the Conservatives brought in $35.2 million, the most for any political party in Canadian history. As far as I could tell from a quick perusal of the Elections Canada website, dairy lobbyists did not make up any significant portion of this amount. (It is very possible I missed something and am happy to be corrected.)
I get that money matters. But where is the evidence that the dairy industry has the financial heft to make an actual difference in the outcome of a general election? In 2023 the Liberals raised $15 million and last time I checked the gaps in contributions continued to grow in the CPC's favour in 2024. Were the Conservatives to come out against supply management do we think that the dairy cartel is going to throw $20 million-plus at the Liberals?
These bromides about how supply management is sacrosanct and a fatal third rail for anyone who goes near it simply do not stand up to scrutiny from what I can see. I want to see actual evidence and not declarative conclusions. This Country requires major structural changes that only begin with dismantling supply management. In the absence of evidence that advocating for its abolition would cost someone an election it is utterly shameful for the entire political class in this Country to continue to protect these cartels.
Thanks for the link. The photo served as a good reminder of Scheer's milk chugging stunt. In terms of its pure arrogance (essentially bragging about the cartels putting him over the top) that display was worse than anything that even Junior has actually done in that regard. And even if he wasn't actually "bought" and it was purely a joke read the room, jackass. Enough of us are outraged at the existence of these cartels - don't even pretend to be chummy with them. Any chance of me voting for him went out the window when I heard about/saw that stunt.
I would be curious to see how the $80 million to $120 million figure quoted therein is arrived at. Perhaps some reporters who earn their keep monitoring Canadian politicians social media histories for for wrong-speak on abortion and such could spend some of their time tracking that down.
I assume you have read the June, 2017 report from Martha Hall Findlay?
Yes. The amount of donations from Big Milk to politicos of all stripes and media is hidden, as it's not just the direct funding from the industry associations. Many invoved in the cartel (not just the individual dairies, but all the dairy industry players) have become so wealthy over the past five decades that the 'donations' can be numerous smaller donations from shell companies and individual donors. Again, this is not unique to the dairy industry; all of Canada's oligopolistic industries so this. The rot is both deep and wide.
How can you talk "free trade" in the dairy sector when the US subsidizes it's dairy to the tune of billions of $. Trump isn't interested in free trade. Canada needs to keep it's supply management system and it's high quality dairy products. We don't need hormone laced US dairy dumped in Canada. Keep Canadians working!
If hormone-laced dairy is really your objection, and you have evidence that it's harmful to human health, then just write health regulations banning the sale of products containing harmful amounts of hormones. The idea that you can't have that without supply management defies logic and common sense.
Free trade does not mean there must be equality of outcome (sales). So if Canada’s dairy products are of such high quality and value, why should any Canadian dairy farmers be worried about our markets being open to lower quality products? The only logical reason is that their legalized cartel is letting them fleece other Canadians at will.
There is no free trade in dairy products with the US as the U.S. government provides substantial support to its dairy industry through various direct and indirect subsidies. In 2015, these subsidies were estimated to total approximately $22.2 billion, equating to 73% of U.S. dairy farmers’ market returns. The price of US dairy products does not reflect the actual costs of production making it impossible for Canadian producers to compete on price without a similar level of tax dollar support.
I think you are overly fixated on the US. Globally, Canada’s Supply Management is a free trade albatross around our neck. Most recently, the UK walked away from a free trade agreement with Canada solely because of dairy supply management.
The UK walked away from a trade agreement also because Canada refused to open up the imports of dairy products into Canada unless the UK dropped their use of regulatory barriers to limit the export of beef to the UK. The Canadian position was based on the previous experience in the trade deal with the EU prior to Brexit where it appear Canada had negotiated access for beef exports only to find out regulatory barriers were used to severely limit any Canadian beef exports.
That may have been the Canadian view after the UK abruptly ended the talks. For the UK it was access to our dairy market (cheese), and it was the UK that unilaterally walked away from the talks.
In January 2024, the United Kingdom suspended free trade negotiations with Canada due to unresolved disputes over agricultural market access. The primary points of contention were:
• British Cheese Exports to Canada: The UK sought greater access for its dairy products, particularly cheese, into the Canadian market. However, Canada maintained protective measures to support its domestic dairy industry, limiting UK exports. 
• Canadian Beef Exports to the UK: Canada aimed to increase its beef exports to the UK. The UK, however, imposed strict sanitary and phytosanitary standards, including bans on certain production methods, which hindered Canadian beef imports. 
These disagreements led to a stalemate, resulting in the suspension of trade talks. This marked the first instance since Brexit where the UK halted negotiations for a trade deal. 
Both nations expressed disappointment over the pause. Canadian officials highlighted the UK’s reluctance to reduce barriers affecting Canada’s agricultural sector, while UK representatives emphasized the need for mutual concessions to achieve a balanced agreement. 
Bottom line. The UK was unwilling to give up their protection of British beef producers and Canada was unwilling to give up its protection of the Canadian dairy industry and you say Canada is the problem.
There is a fallacy in your argument, which is the assumption that the only country interested in importing dairy into Canada is the US. We lost a free trade deal with the UK over supply management. Perhaps reread the article and ponder that the US isn’t the only market who might import - and just like with other food products, health canada would atill have requirements on what is and isn’t allowed into Canadian imports.
It’s a false choice fallacy to pretend it’s supply management or dangerous hormone co laminated US imports. If that’s your only argument, then there is no real argument for supply management.
A major reason for the breakdown of the UK Free Trade deal from the Canadian point of view is the UK refusing to accept Canadian imports of beef that is raised using growth hormones. Canada had experienced the failure to increase beef exports to Europe under the pre Brexit EU agreement because of the EU imposed technical barriers and were not willing to be duped again. Why would you allow British cheese imports when the UK effectively does not allow Canadian imports of beef. This at a time when UK continues to export substantial beef exports to Canada while Canadian exports to the UK are negligible.
Exactly, and it seems that the MSM never picks this up. Canada and the US both protect their dairy industries. The US maintains subsidies to ensure that the dairy farmer receives a fair price for their product. In Canada, we have a Supply Management system that ensures that the dairy farmer receives a fair price for their product.
It is the same goal, just two different programs to ensure the same outcome.
If our largest trade partner is using a different program to ensure the same outcome, while our program is creating problems... why don't we just change?
Gradually increase quota volumes until they are meaningless, while bringing in International style subsidy so we don't have to keep up huge tariffs on any excess product they're all trying to dump on the open market. We can ban chemicals and hormones we don't like to maintain safety and quality (Europeans do this for all kinds of products).
Let's not be the one who keeps bringing checkers to the chess tournament.
But all subsidies in the U.S. come from taxes. Still, this could be a fair trade-off because taxes are paid mostly by the wealthy while prices are paid by everyone.
No evidence that hormones used in American dairy industry are harmful to human health. That is a scary campfire story to keep the Council of Canadians and Friends of Public Broadcasting on side.
I have stated elsewhere in these posts that I support the cessation of the supply management system and I stand by that.
As part of the negotiations with the US we should simply offer to abandon supply management but as part of that agreement the US would have to end all subsidies to the dairy industry in the US.
I fully support the abandonment of the supply management system.
That system has raised prices to Canadian consumers for decades and should be abandoned. That will bring down food prices substantially.
A curiosity (not really at all!) is that the supply managed industry is highly centralized in Quebec and, quelle surprise!, our politicians - as noted by Rob Breakenridge - bend over backwards to support it. That is simply another way in which Quebec's votes rule the country, to the detriment of the country.
Hmmm.. the US egg prices are skyrocketing. Avian flu, yes, but also the sector is controlled by a few corporations. And the dairy sector continues to be a race to the bottom. Our supply management system keeps farms healthy, and selling prices are tied to input costs. Quality, I suggest, is higher because of that. No bovine growth hormones required. (I’m not a farmer, and not connected to agriculture)
No, quality is not higher because of supply management.
"They (the quota holders) have every financial incentive to push me, and by association you, out of the market and sit comfy in their chokehold on the industry and on their battery cage chickens. This has to stop.
We – small scale farmers and the general public – need to demand better. We need to demand that small scale egg producers be able to hold more chickens in their flocks. We need the big quota conglomerates off our neck to allow small entrepreneurs to actually enter into the business."
Hey Breck, The Food Professor stated in X that he was at the Canadian Dairy Commission (or something like that) at a fancy PQ hotel and there were no politicians there. First time he ever say that. Hopefully this means change is forthcoming. The bigger issue for food is the French language requirement on every food package (and country of origin). Sadly, we could be eating food from Panama, Brazil, Columbia etc. and get some of their mega grocery stories (or even Whole Foods!!), but one of the languages besides English on their products would be in another romantic language so we get short shifted again
Honestly, that shouldn't be a problem. I've bought 80 cent candy bars from Dollarama with French (and English!) stickers slapped on them because they were made overseas (often in Turkey). The ones made in Italy usually have French- and Italian-language ingredient lists, so an English sticker is required.
If this is economical for 80 cent candy bars, it'll be fine for cheese from New Zealand or wherever that retails for much more. It's the supply management that's the obstacle.
It's not the cost of the label. It's the cost of documenting to the Canadian government that the label is both a faithful translation and accurately describes the ingredients. This could be easier to amortize over hundreds of thousands of candy bars than for a small run of cheese. It would also depend on the margin. Candy bars are high mark-up impulse purchases that are easy to shrink-flate if costs go up. Cheese is groceries sold by weight and almost certainly no one makes as much on cheese as they do on candy bars and other snacks. It could well be that a small cheese producer in Colombia would look at the cost of complying with Canadian labeling regulations and say, YFKM?
And yet the dairy industry in New Zealand (for example) can export all around the world and still turn a profit with no subsidy, all while complying with dozens of national labeling standards in multiple languages. Even if a small artisinal fromagerie in Columbia says no for some reason, enough of the others will have enough profit-making competence to say yes.
I guess they just want to, and so they work at it.
By the way, New Zealand complained in 2022 that Canada was not honouring its promise under the CPTPP to give NZ farmers access to its dairy market. Several other countries in the Pacific region chimed in. A tribunal struck to adjudicate the dispute sided strongly with NZ in 2023.
Yes, it is crazy how deeply this miniscule industry is hobbling our trade relations with other countries. If ever we want a "CANZUK" alternative to the US, the dairy cartel has got to be the first to go.
Thanks for the article. It would have been useful if it had delved into why no party is willing to negotiate around dairy. I’m pretty sure the short answer is the risk of losing votes in Quebec. But wouldn’t they also pick up a bunch of votes outside of Quebec ?
We should end supply management for dairy, eggs and poultry. All it does is guarantee a small number of farmers will get rich while all those Canadians who consume those products have to pay more. If supply management is so great, why not have it for beef and pork?
Plus getting rid of it will allow us to negotiate with the world free trade agreements in good faith.
Super glad to see Rob join the writers for The Line, and hope it continues. You won't agree with Rob all of the time (nor should you) but he's a strong writer who defends his opinions. Obviously The Line still has its own editorial policies, but I look forward to Rob's opinions on subjects perhaps a bit less constrained by the editorial policies of Corus or Postmedia.
As someone who both grew up in and has made my career in the agricultural-environmental sector, this topic is very meaningful to me. My own family had a mixed farm that over the decades raised cattle, chickens, geese, grains, oilseeds, flax, and various forage & hay products. My father was a fierce opponent of the Canadian Wheat Board who held our grain production hostage, and our farm prospered when its monopoly ended, allowing us to diversify our grains to supply malt barley for brewing & distilling, feed barley to support cattle feeders, durum wheat for pastas, and hard red spring wheat for baking flour. He also enthusiastically grew canola to support the burgeouning oilseed industry. I know some still mourn the loss of the Wheat Board (which only applied to Western farmers), but our family farm benefited from the freedom that resulted from its demise.
My wife's family made their living in the cattle feeding sector, and her father was part of the executive team of Canadian cattle leaders in the 70s through the 90s that developed our beef export sector to the US and the Asia-Pacific. This benefited both cattle producers and the feed grain farming sector that supported it. By no means is the Canadian cattle feeding sector without its own issues (as cow-calf producers will no doubt note), but the beef industry in Canada is much more diverse than it would have been if these early beef cattle leaders had pursued the cartel model like their dairy and poultry industry neighbours did.
I'm (barely) old enough to remember the era prior to the dairy cartels, when on our farm we received our milk in resusable glass bottles delivered personally from the neighbours' dairy down the road a few miles. Just a few miles from that was a locally owned cheese factory in a tiny community that supplied cheese in Alberta and beyond. Another nearby small commuity had a creamery that processed locally produced milk into all kinds of dairy products. I'm quite certain this was the case across Canada. Since supply management came into Canada in the early 1970s, all that is gone, likely forever. I know I will get pushback on this from those connected to the current dairy industry, but I'd argue today's Canadian dairy products are more expenseive, more homgenized (pun intended), and frankly, less palatable. Canadian butter today is a brickish monstrosity compared to butter served in most other countries in the world, as an example.
I think the hold the dairy cartel has over our politicians and media is down to one simple fact - money. It greases the palms of media and politicos across the spectrum. All industries do this, of course, but the dairy quotas are so lucrative after 50 years (worth millions) that the cartel can quite literally bankroll multiple political candidates of all parties, and make large advertising deals with both social and traditional media. I'm not sure if they've approached The Line's editors with a sponsorship of their offerings, given Matt & Jen (and now Rob's) consistent opinions against supply management. The Line clearly (to this point) appears not to be sponsored by the dairy cartel, or from government, which I applaud them for.
The Line is sponsored by Unsmoke Canada and TikTok Canada, among others. Some may have concerns about both these entities, but as a subscriber (and an independent businessperson myself) I understand that Matt and Jen have to make money at this new media game to survive, and to this point they are ethically okay with those two sponsors. We all have the choice to either subscribe and support them in those choices, or not.
Like most things, this issue is maninly about money and control. For me, I obviously have to support the supply managed dairy and poultry sectors in order to feed my family, but I would love a mindset shift in both industries to not be afraid of foreign competition, but to instead positively view the challenge of competing with their production product offerings to the world, rather than artificially keeping out that competition at the expense of Canadian consumers.
I don't even really like American cheese. I prefer UK, French, or Dutch cheese any day to anything I've tasted from North America, and I'm a third generation Canadian. That might change, if new Canadian and foreign dairy and poultry producers were able to enter the market, and compete with newer, more interesting product choices.
Well said. I would not mind paying higher for good quality, but we pay high prices for very poor quality dairy products. Sure, are cheese, butter, milk, and yogurt may be better than what you normally get in America, but when compared to what you get in Europe we are getting hosed. The quality difference is huge. Whenever I am in Europe, I triple my dairy intake because it is just that good. And it is not specialty products, it is just the run of the mill dairy from any grocery store or restaurant.
That's been my experience as well.
I was recently in Italy. The butter was from New Zealand. I was eating like cheese! A simply wonderful full flavour.
The yogurt - many brands. I noted that Parmalat brand in Italy tastes far better than Parmalat Canada yogurt. I guess they have higher standards in Italy and Europe as a whole. I understand Parmalat does not have the best reputation in Europe, both in terms of quality and business ethics. They are owned by a French company but they do not sell product in France. There were other brands of yogurt though and they were so full of taste - even the "Plain" yogurt had a great taste.
Don't get me started on cheese. There are some good cheeses in Canada, but not nearly enough of them. Balderson is not bad, for Canada, but lots of nice Quebec soft cheeses as well. There are some independent small dairies around that produce good product, but they are very pricey. Yet in the UK, you can gourmet style aged cheeses in petrol stations for the cost so a couple of chocolate bars here.
Canadians have been robbed of good taste by supply management, and the dairies that benefit from this system. The real culprits in my mind are the big dairies.
Perhaps if some of the interprovincial trade barriers come down as a results of Matt's Ice Bucket Challenge (credit where it's due) perhaps we will see more interprovincial trade in Canadian cheeses. I sincerely doubt prices will fall, in fact, I expect them to rise. Agree on the Balderson - it was my go-to until I found 3 or 4 UK cheeses that Costco carries.
One commentator once said Canada’s Dairy cartel is to Canada what the NRA is to the US. Only a minority agree with it, but nothing changes.
I get so frustrated when people stalk about how good our dairy products are. They are not. If you think this then please get out in the world and get your eyes opened. Go to France and taste their cheese and butter and then pass judgement. We are being robbed of quality.
I really miss Glenwood Cheese, it was the best!
In 1939 Europe was on the brink of war, back here at home, the folks of Hillspring, Hartley and Glenwood (Alberta) were fighting a different kind of war. Still suffering from the residual effects of the Great Depression, money was scarce...people weren't going hungry because they had farm produce and large gardens, but cash was still needed ot pay the taxes on the land...many farms were lost under these harsh conditions. During times of great stress something amazing happens. Communities come together in the spirit of cooperation and help each other out. (This spirit of cooperation is still very much alive and well to this day in these communities)
It was in this setting that a group of United Irrigation District (U.I.D.) people struck up a committee to investigate the potential to generate some economic activity. The first meeting was held March 24, 1939. Several ideas were discussed with the building of a cheese factory being the most viable. On July 18, 1941 the boiler was fired up and cheesemaker Ned E. Davidson made the first of many vats of cheese. Within 6 months the cheese factory was making a profit. There were 83,199 pounds of cheese made to the end of 1941. Most of this was sold to Kraft Co in Calgary for $.24 per pound. Milk was received from 128 farmers; this was hauled in by horse drawn vehicles and trucks. The cheese that winter in competition throughout Alberta took all the prizes with a grading of 98.5%. Farmers were paid $1.25 per hundred for milk but the economy of the district from the “milk cheques” took a big jump. Stores reported a boost of 75% in sales due to the increased revenue. Ned Davidson went on to win a great many trophys and awards for his wonderful cheese. Ned retired in 1983 after 43 years of making his award winning cheese. He passed away July 30, 2010 a the ripe age of 97 years.
The U.I.D. and the C.A.D.P (Central Alberta Dairy Pool) cooperatives united in the 1980s with the C.A.D.P. taking responsibility for the cheese factory and not shut it down. Glenwood would keep it's primary employer but it was a bitter pill to swallow. The Glenwood Cheese Factory sign came down and was replaces with Alpha, then later with Dairyland, Armstrong then finally with Saputo in 2000. In 2004 the plant stopped making cheese and started making powdered skim milk dropping their workforce from 80 to 20 people. On March 27, 2014...75 years after the first conception of a cheese factory, Saputo announced that it would be closing the Glenwood factory by 2015.
To read more about our story and the history of the U.I.D. Cheese Factory visit our library on Min Avenue in Glenwood, Alberta behind the town office, much of the history that's been reported here comes from A History of the United Irrigation District Cheese Facroty Cooperative Association Ltd by Dennis J. Prince (637.3 P) and 100 Years Between the Rivers.
Coolpro why is your story making me cry - it must be the prairie boy in me
Such as shame when a small independent dairy goes out of business. My condolences.
Totally off topic but I have been hoarding Lowney's Cherry Blossom Chocolates for two months now. Hershey's stopped making this iconic Canadian chocolate.
Oh no! That’s awful
Are you by any chance a professional writer? This is more substantive—and better written—than the article to which it's replying. Your further comment below suggests serious interest in local history as well, and an ability to marshal data. Have you considered writing a personal memoir, or a history of farming in the prairies? Or have you perhaps already done so?
The first comment is my own. I am not a professional writer in the sense that our Line Editors are, but I have extensive experience in technical and commentary writing in my areas of expertise that I've been paid for over the decades. I've been an avid reader on broad subjects my entire life, and definitely have an active interest in natural and human history, especially but not exclusive to my local region.
The subsequent comment on the Glenwood cheese factory the history is not - it is an amalgamation of information from archives of the Glenwood Community Newsletter and a post on this site: https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC57MQ4
which I really should have attributed above. My apologies to the authors of both; my intent was to share their recollection of the cheese factory history, not to pass it off as my own work.
It really was fantastic cheese, as I fondly recall as a youth.
Interesting. Thanks for replying. Don't dismiss the idea of writing a memoir of life on the farm as a retirement project. You make it sound interesting here.
I'm a retired reference librarian with a philosophy M.A., so of course I approve both your reading habits and the breadth of your interests. As it happens, I have over eight thousand books in my home library, mostly literature, philosophy and intellectual history. We now know what no one knew when I was a child: people who read for pleasure at a young age end up out-earning those who don't by a considerable margin; and the act of reading itself puts in place a neurological substrate that makes further learning easier. In this respect it doesn't matter so much what kids read (though obviously it never hurts to read for substantive content) as that they read.
Cheese was essentially absent from my upbringing; my only real recollection of it is my younger brother's predilection for pouring about half a jar of Cheez Whiz into his omelets (yech!). It wasn't until I backpacked through Europe in the 1970s and discovered cheese fondue in Switzerland that I became a convert. Subsequently, I had the good luck to marry a charming Frenchwoman from Marseille; and now our fridge is never without Gruyere, Emmental, goat cheese, Spanish Wine cheese, etc.
The Canadian dairy cartel and all of the subsidized industries elsewhere in the world studiously avoid discussing New Zealand, where the government eliminated dairy subsidies and protections decades ago to familiar predictions of doom. However, the industry has actually flourished. They're also providing a higher quality product than the Canadian producers: pick up a package of New Zealand cheddar at Costco and compare the taste and texture to a Canadian one from the same cooler. Try the butter, if you can get it before the limited quota we're allowed to import is swept off the shelves. It behaves the way butter's supposed to, softening at room temperature and without the weird sticky texture of Canadian butter since Canadian producers decided to goose production (and profit) by adding palm oil additives to their cattle feed.
The whole notion that Canadian farmers couldn't survive the loss of subsidies is probably true for those who refuse to adapt and insist on being sheltered from competition. For the industry as a whole, it's self-serving nonsense.
New Zealand does not import significant amounts of dairy products. Its producers are not at risk of competition from highly subsidized products from other countries but especially the United States.
The U.S. government provides substantial support to its dairy industry through various direct and indirect subsidies. In 2015, these subsidies were estimated to total approximately $22.2 billion, equating to 73% of U.S. dairy farmers’ market returns.
What is more nonsense is the suggestion Canadian Dairy producers could compete price wise with American imports that are highly subsidized with US tax dollars without some form of subsidization.
New Zealand doesn't import because they have a competitive industry. And despite those US subsidies AND US tariffs, New Zealand exports $700 million US of dairy products to the US every year. As I said, the way some Canadian dairy producers react to the prospect of competition suggests to me that THEY need to be sheltered from competition. I don't buy the argument that a Canadian dairy industry couldn't be competitive.
Kudos for the intellectual honesty of this piece. Even if Trump is a total extortionist/mob-style shakedown artist, we cannot possibly hold the high ground if we insist on preserving a dairy cartel while still insisting on the benefits of free trade.
Reading some of the comments here it seems obvious that the Dairy Council of Canada has mounted an incredibly successful media campaign. Anything other than Canadian production is unsafe/unclean/unfit and mostly unpatriotic. They are a cartel plain and simple and sell the Kool Aid that they are here for the good of all Canadians. We pay far too much for their products to protect a few thousand wealthy and well connected operations predominately in the two foundational provinces at the expense of the rest of Canada. When even the protector of the free market Conservatives Andrew Scheer chugs milk at the their leadership convention you know that the fix is in. Soviet style market control should by now be only an historical footnote in Canada and not a millstone hanging around our necks in international trade talks that hugely affect an entire country’s economic well being.
These types of internal trade battles are often carried out in a vacuum of assessment of wider trade implications.
For those who feel an entitlement to cheap food products, especially milk and cheese, well okay. But for Gods sake do the research on the international markets for milk and cheese products.
The author suggests that Canadian milk producers (and by extension the processors) aren’t interested in export markets. Does anyone wonder why? Because the world milk market is one big dumping ground, with surplus production being shoved onto markets at fire sale prices, and governments picking up the slack with subsidies to the producers back home. Are Canadians willing to backstop international milk markets like that? I highly doubt it.
In the end, the current production model isn’t palatable to either domestic consumers or trade partners. Something has to give here and it is going to cost taxpayers a ton of money to buy the quotas back from farm operators. These are legal for trade quotas that are either heavily mortgaged or used as security with lenders. Making the quotas worthless will bankrupt many dairy producers through no fault of their own.
This is a very complicated issue and the farm sector in Canada has very few consolidated votes and almost none that support Liberals west of Ontario. We know that if Canadian trade negotiators are pressed to choose between building cars or milking cows, the cars are going to win. So get on with it and open up the treasury to buy out the quotas at fair market value
100%. If ever there were a time to use eminent domain, this is it. A single week of 25% avoided tariffs on autos and metals would probably pay for it.
Worst case scenario buy them out and set up a subsidy regime like the US.
Only thing is, the quota was given for free at first. There is no requirement for buy-back. Every lender and farmer knows this! It’s a high risk scam.
Oooh.
I can’t let that comment slide without a rebuttal.
Yes, MANY YEARS AGO quotas were allocated to the producers for free, in exchange for putting a lid on production. This made supply and demand fundamentals even out over time. Cows aren’t widgets. They have an uneven production curve which at calving is high and slowly tapers down until drying off and a period of no production until the next cycle begins.
Getting back to quotas:
They were originally allocated to producers but the average number of cows per farm unit has increased to meet higher consumer demand. The extra quota needed to have more cows is sold at going market prices. This can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars for a dairy operation wanting to expand.
Quota is required by law to milk cows. Many operations use the quota as collateral for security or have quota that is mortgaged because it was purchased. Distilling the value of the quota down to nothing due to international trade negotiations is about as bad faith bargaining as I can think of.
I understand that, I killed a lot of cows in my life. My background is Dutch; in the late eighties and all through the nineties, a lot of Dutchmen, with the money they got from selling their quota in Holland at top dollar, came to Canada. Mostly to Alberta and Ontario. Local Canadian producers (mostly producing out of bank barns and hip roof barns) took the money that was offered by these Dutchmen and left the industry. The inflation of value of quota was artificial. Alongside the Dutchmen, many Mennonite and Hutterite farms also went along in the race to scoop up quota to fill their new state-of-the-art barns. Banks would finance them because these groups provide longevity (their farms are multi generational and amortization over longer term is relatively safe).
The influx of Dutchmen has stopped due to the dutch government letting the quote system die over time in the early 2000’s. We could do this in Canada, release 10% more quota into the system every year for 10 years to slowly bring the value down and shut it down in 10 years. The additional quota causes demand to drop for quota. This is what they did in Holland. It gives farmers 10 years to deal with the leverage issue.
I work a lot with dairy and chicken farmers (I used to farm myself) and my son in law is production manager at a large dairy in Ontario. The value of milk and feather products is based on cost of production. Ok. The thing is that the cost of production is now artificially high because dairy farmers start to include things that aren’t necessary per se. many farmers buy overpriced machinery that only get used a few hours per year, because the predictable increase in price per unit provides borrowing safety, banks allow this to happen. No other farming sector gets away with being leveraged to that extend and to being over-mechanized as well. In Alberta, some large dairies have been buying farmland to do cash cropping. The safe cash flow and high margins allow them to outbid the local grain farmers, driving up land prices past economical sense.
So, there are three problems with supply management:
1. Trade repercussions on other sectors that depend on exports
2. Higher prices in Canada for consumers than necessary
3. Unfair competition by a protected price farm system with farms that are price-unprotected (for resources)
Agreed. The political economy of just cancelling the quotas is going to be terrible. You're going to have Le Devoir etc running sob stories that will result in the CAQ obstructing the Canada East pipeline out of spite.
Far better to just pay the money once and be done with it.
Actually, the deal should be that if the dairy cartel cooperates, we buy out their quotas. If they launch a campaign against ending supply management, they get nothing.
Thank you both for your excellent explanation. Now I understand the difficulty in ending the quotas. The Dutch model looks to me like the way to go - but go we must.
Worth pointing out that nobody bought taxi medallions back from taxi operators when Uber broke that cartel. This is a regulatory risk that dairy farmers have been aware of for years.
A quota used for security with lenders that suddenly becomes worthless risks harm to the lender, it doesn't result in the withdrawal of the loan unless that term was specifically written in - and if it was, that should have been a giant red flag to the dairy producers who leveraged those quotas that they were taking on major risk when they did so.
All the arguments against blowing up supply management systems for dairy/poultry/eggs were the exact same arguments raised against removing the Canadian Wheat Board from the equation.
...and wheat farmers have flourished since they got the CWB out of the way.
This issue has been hampering grain, pork, beef and oilseed farmers for decades. The supply management caused tariffs has always been brought up by Japan and South Korea as an issue. Reciprocal tariffs were put in place, making our products more expensive than those from our US counterparts in these markets. Supply management needs to go.
Yes! It sounded almost like a religious belief coming from Chrystia's debate speech.
Can you share the numbers?
How much money in tariffs is collected to create the secure and safe supply system in each sector - dairy, poultry, eggs? What happens to the money? Who benefits from the tariffs collected? And ultimately, why are our producers not interested in exports?
And why on earth would Parliament enshrine that kind of protectionism into law? Why why why?
The Bloc wanted it, because the dairy-farmers in Quebec are politically powerful. The Liberals are in a minority and needed support.
The grand bargain to end this nonsense is just to have the federal government buy the licenses and then burn them. Then set up a subsidy regime, that other countries are familiar with.
Yes, all the political parties support supply management. This is merely (further) evidence of a corrupt/ossified political structure. Even in the face of Trump's antics nobody seems willing to budge which is mind-blowing. The cartels have to go simply because it is the right thing to do - regardless of how politically expedient such actions would be.
But I don't even accept that there would be negative political ramifications for any party who came for the cartels. I don't have time to make a career out of this issue but per the Agriculture Canada website there are roughly 9,500 dairy farms in Canada (4,400 in Quebec, 3,300 in Ontario and fewer than 500 in every other Province). There are 29,000 jobs in the dairy manufacturing sector and 17,000 jobs in dairy farm ops. This small number of people is going to swing an election in Canada when over 17 million ballots were cast in the last election? I am skeptical - although open to hearing the counter argument. We don't have an Electoral College where 50,000 strategically located voters can so easily determine the outcome.
Furthermore, if the impacts of these cartels were actually explained to the population I think that advocating for their abolition would prove wildly popular to literally millions of voters. For every voter employed in the dairy industry who, due to their apparent employment interest, switches a vote that would have otherwise gone one way (and remember, it won't be ALL of them) I'd bet there would be many, many more voters who would change their vote in the opposite direction. Again, I am open to having my mind changed but based on the evidence available to me I think the policy would be a winner with the electorate overall.
Dairy hold is not about votes. It's about M O N E Y to media and political parties/candidates.
The financial contributions of which you speak are merely a means to an end and not not the end itself - the end being to win the election. In 2023 the Conservatives brought in $35.2 million, the most for any political party in Canadian history. As far as I could tell from a quick perusal of the Elections Canada website, dairy lobbyists did not make up any significant portion of this amount. (It is very possible I missed something and am happy to be corrected.)
I get that money matters. But where is the evidence that the dairy industry has the financial heft to make an actual difference in the outcome of a general election? In 2023 the Liberals raised $15 million and last time I checked the gaps in contributions continued to grow in the CPC's favour in 2024. Were the Conservatives to come out against supply management do we think that the dairy cartel is going to throw $20 million-plus at the Liberals?
These bromides about how supply management is sacrosanct and a fatal third rail for anyone who goes near it simply do not stand up to scrutiny from what I can see. I want to see actual evidence and not declarative conclusions. This Country requires major structural changes that only begin with dismantling supply management. In the absence of evidence that advocating for its abolition would cost someone an election it is utterly shameful for the entire political class in this Country to continue to protect these cartels.
https://hir.harvard.edu/canadas-dairy-lobby-the-shocking-power-of-big-milk/
Thanks for the link. The photo served as a good reminder of Scheer's milk chugging stunt. In terms of its pure arrogance (essentially bragging about the cartels putting him over the top) that display was worse than anything that even Junior has actually done in that regard. And even if he wasn't actually "bought" and it was purely a joke read the room, jackass. Enough of us are outraged at the existence of these cartels - don't even pretend to be chummy with them. Any chance of me voting for him went out the window when I heard about/saw that stunt.
I would be curious to see how the $80 million to $120 million figure quoted therein is arrived at. Perhaps some reporters who earn their keep monitoring Canadian politicians social media histories for for wrong-speak on abortion and such could spend some of their time tracking that down.
I assume you have read the June, 2017 report from Martha Hall Findlay?
Thanks again for the link.
Yes. The amount of donations from Big Milk to politicos of all stripes and media is hidden, as it's not just the direct funding from the industry associations. Many invoved in the cartel (not just the individual dairies, but all the dairy industry players) have become so wealthy over the past five decades that the 'donations' can be numerous smaller donations from shell companies and individual donors. Again, this is not unique to the dairy industry; all of Canada's oligopolistic industries so this. The rot is both deep and wide.
This explains the political motivations:
https://agriculture.canada.ca/en/sector/animal-industry/canadian-dairy-information-centre/statistics-market-information/farm-statistics/distribution-quota
How can you talk "free trade" in the dairy sector when the US subsidizes it's dairy to the tune of billions of $. Trump isn't interested in free trade. Canada needs to keep it's supply management system and it's high quality dairy products. We don't need hormone laced US dairy dumped in Canada. Keep Canadians working!
If hormone-laced dairy is really your objection, and you have evidence that it's harmful to human health, then just write health regulations banning the sale of products containing harmful amounts of hormones. The idea that you can't have that without supply management defies logic and common sense.
Free trade does not mean there must be equality of outcome (sales). So if Canada’s dairy products are of such high quality and value, why should any Canadian dairy farmers be worried about our markets being open to lower quality products? The only logical reason is that their legalized cartel is letting them fleece other Canadians at will.
There is no free trade in dairy products with the US as the U.S. government provides substantial support to its dairy industry through various direct and indirect subsidies. In 2015, these subsidies were estimated to total approximately $22.2 billion, equating to 73% of U.S. dairy farmers’ market returns. The price of US dairy products does not reflect the actual costs of production making it impossible for Canadian producers to compete on price without a similar level of tax dollar support.
I think you are overly fixated on the US. Globally, Canada’s Supply Management is a free trade albatross around our neck. Most recently, the UK walked away from a free trade agreement with Canada solely because of dairy supply management.
The UK walked away from a trade agreement also because Canada refused to open up the imports of dairy products into Canada unless the UK dropped their use of regulatory barriers to limit the export of beef to the UK. The Canadian position was based on the previous experience in the trade deal with the EU prior to Brexit where it appear Canada had negotiated access for beef exports only to find out regulatory barriers were used to severely limit any Canadian beef exports.
That may have been the Canadian view after the UK abruptly ended the talks. For the UK it was access to our dairy market (cheese), and it was the UK that unilaterally walked away from the talks.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-uk-trade-cheese-1.7094817
In January 2024, the United Kingdom suspended free trade negotiations with Canada due to unresolved disputes over agricultural market access. The primary points of contention were:
• British Cheese Exports to Canada: The UK sought greater access for its dairy products, particularly cheese, into the Canadian market. However, Canada maintained protective measures to support its domestic dairy industry, limiting UK exports. 
• Canadian Beef Exports to the UK: Canada aimed to increase its beef exports to the UK. The UK, however, imposed strict sanitary and phytosanitary standards, including bans on certain production methods, which hindered Canadian beef imports. 
These disagreements led to a stalemate, resulting in the suspension of trade talks. This marked the first instance since Brexit where the UK halted negotiations for a trade deal. 
Both nations expressed disappointment over the pause. Canadian officials highlighted the UK’s reluctance to reduce barriers affecting Canada’s agricultural sector, while UK representatives emphasized the need for mutual concessions to achieve a balanced agreement. 
Bottom line. The UK was unwilling to give up their protection of British beef producers and Canada was unwilling to give up its protection of the Canadian dairy industry and you say Canada is the problem.
There is a fallacy in your argument, which is the assumption that the only country interested in importing dairy into Canada is the US. We lost a free trade deal with the UK over supply management. Perhaps reread the article and ponder that the US isn’t the only market who might import - and just like with other food products, health canada would atill have requirements on what is and isn’t allowed into Canadian imports.
It’s a false choice fallacy to pretend it’s supply management or dangerous hormone co laminated US imports. If that’s your only argument, then there is no real argument for supply management.
A major reason for the breakdown of the UK Free Trade deal from the Canadian point of view is the UK refusing to accept Canadian imports of beef that is raised using growth hormones. Canada had experienced the failure to increase beef exports to Europe under the pre Brexit EU agreement because of the EU imposed technical barriers and were not willing to be duped again. Why would you allow British cheese imports when the UK effectively does not allow Canadian imports of beef. This at a time when UK continues to export substantial beef exports to Canada while Canadian exports to the UK are negligible.
Exactly, and it seems that the MSM never picks this up. Canada and the US both protect their dairy industries. The US maintains subsidies to ensure that the dairy farmer receives a fair price for their product. In Canada, we have a Supply Management system that ensures that the dairy farmer receives a fair price for their product.
It is the same goal, just two different programs to ensure the same outcome.
If our largest trade partner is using a different program to ensure the same outcome, while our program is creating problems... why don't we just change?
Gradually increase quota volumes until they are meaningless, while bringing in International style subsidy so we don't have to keep up huge tariffs on any excess product they're all trying to dump on the open market. We can ban chemicals and hormones we don't like to maintain safety and quality (Europeans do this for all kinds of products).
Let's not be the one who keeps bringing checkers to the chess tournament.
Yet prices are lower in the US
But all subsidies in the U.S. come from taxes. Still, this could be a fair trade-off because taxes are paid mostly by the wealthy while prices are paid by everyone.
No evidence that hormones used in American dairy industry are harmful to human health. That is a scary campfire story to keep the Council of Canadians and Friends of Public Broadcasting on side.
High quality? Set your standards higher.
This is undoubtably accurate, but it may be beginning to change in the US:
https://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/trump-denies-over-2-billion-in-payments-owed-to-30000-farmers/
I have stated elsewhere in these posts that I support the cessation of the supply management system and I stand by that.
As part of the negotiations with the US we should simply offer to abandon supply management but as part of that agreement the US would have to end all subsidies to the dairy industry in the US.
I fully support the abandonment of the supply management system.
That system has raised prices to Canadian consumers for decades and should be abandoned. That will bring down food prices substantially.
A curiosity (not really at all!) is that the supply managed industry is highly centralized in Quebec and, quelle surprise!, our politicians - as noted by Rob Breakenridge - bend over backwards to support it. That is simply another way in which Quebec's votes rule the country, to the detriment of the country.
Hmmm.. the US egg prices are skyrocketing. Avian flu, yes, but also the sector is controlled by a few corporations. And the dairy sector continues to be a race to the bottom. Our supply management system keeps farms healthy, and selling prices are tied to input costs. Quality, I suggest, is higher because of that. No bovine growth hormones required. (I’m not a farmer, and not connected to agriculture)
No, quality is not higher because of supply management.
"They (the quota holders) have every financial incentive to push me, and by association you, out of the market and sit comfy in their chokehold on the industry and on their battery cage chickens. This has to stop.
We – small scale farmers and the general public – need to demand better. We need to demand that small scale egg producers be able to hold more chickens in their flocks. We need the big quota conglomerates off our neck to allow small entrepreneurs to actually enter into the business."
https://returntoearthfarm.ca/the-absolute-state-of-being-a-small-scale-egg-farmer-in-ontario/
Bovine growth hormones are used in Canada as well.
Hey Breck, The Food Professor stated in X that he was at the Canadian Dairy Commission (or something like that) at a fancy PQ hotel and there were no politicians there. First time he ever say that. Hopefully this means change is forthcoming. The bigger issue for food is the French language requirement on every food package (and country of origin). Sadly, we could be eating food from Panama, Brazil, Columbia etc. and get some of their mega grocery stories (or even Whole Foods!!), but one of the languages besides English on their products would be in another romantic language so we get short shifted again
Honestly, that shouldn't be a problem. I've bought 80 cent candy bars from Dollarama with French (and English!) stickers slapped on them because they were made overseas (often in Turkey). The ones made in Italy usually have French- and Italian-language ingredient lists, so an English sticker is required.
If this is economical for 80 cent candy bars, it'll be fine for cheese from New Zealand or wherever that retails for much more. It's the supply management that's the obstacle.
It's not the cost of the label. It's the cost of documenting to the Canadian government that the label is both a faithful translation and accurately describes the ingredients. This could be easier to amortize over hundreds of thousands of candy bars than for a small run of cheese. It would also depend on the margin. Candy bars are high mark-up impulse purchases that are easy to shrink-flate if costs go up. Cheese is groceries sold by weight and almost certainly no one makes as much on cheese as they do on candy bars and other snacks. It could well be that a small cheese producer in Colombia would look at the cost of complying with Canadian labeling regulations and say, YFKM?
And yet the dairy industry in New Zealand (for example) can export all around the world and still turn a profit with no subsidy, all while complying with dozens of national labeling standards in multiple languages. Even if a small artisinal fromagerie in Columbia says no for some reason, enough of the others will have enough profit-making competence to say yes.
I guess they just want to, and so they work at it.
By the way, New Zealand complained in 2022 that Canada was not honouring its promise under the CPTPP to give NZ farmers access to its dairy market. Several other countries in the Pacific region chimed in. A tribunal struck to adjudicate the dispute sided strongly with NZ in 2023.
https://brighterworld.mcmaster.ca/articles/analysis-why-new-zealand-is-right-to-call-out-canada-on-its-dairy-industry/
https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/trade/trade-law-and-dispute-settlement/current-wto-disputes
Yes, it is crazy how deeply this miniscule industry is hobbling our trade relations with other countries. If ever we want a "CANZUK" alternative to the US, the dairy cartel has got to be the first to go.
Thanks for the article. It would have been useful if it had delved into why no party is willing to negotiate around dairy. I’m pretty sure the short answer is the risk of losing votes in Quebec. But wouldn’t they also pick up a bunch of votes outside of Quebec ?
This is a number one issue for the voters they WILL lose.
This is down the list for the voters they MIGHT gain.
See my post on this. Not about votes. M O N E Y.
We should end supply management for dairy, eggs and poultry. All it does is guarantee a small number of farmers will get rich while all those Canadians who consume those products have to pay more. If supply management is so great, why not have it for beef and pork?
Plus getting rid of it will allow us to negotiate with the world free trade agreements in good faith.