The Canadian Federation of Agriculture and supply-managed commodity groups say farmers have had no input on a revised interprovincial trade deal that carries a potential downside for the ag sector.
“The initiative to renegotiate the text was without any prior consultation with affected industry groups,” CFA president Laurent Pellerin said in a release.
The revisions to Chapter Nine of the provinces’ Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) have effects for “every sector of Canadian agriculture,” he said.
The CFA said its legal analysis of the text shows that “despite the (provincial) premiers’ assurances that the legislative powers of orderly marketing boards has been excluded, the actual language is not adequate. In addition, further legal analysis has shown the text does not specifically protect the power for ministerial exemptions.”
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The federation and its provincial members have been asking for consultations and language to protect supply management and marketing boards, and have also proposed that the wording and intention related to the protection and maintenance of supply management needs to reflect what was agreed to in the Trade and Co-operation Agreement between Quebec and Ontario.
The provincial governments had committed to consult with farmers and industries but “they did not follow up,” Canada’s supply-managed poultry, egg and dairy commodity groups – commonly referred to as the “SM5” – said in a joint release.
