The chicken industry leaders in Ontario and Quebec are implementing a deal that flies in the face of an agreement reached by Canada's premiers, a deal to reduce inter-provincial trade barriers.
The Ontario and Quebec chicken industries are erecting a new and high inter-provincial trade barrier, banning marketing board members and processing companies from buying or selling out-of-province chickens without explicit consent from their respective marketing boards.
It's set to take effect this fall.
In practice, the deal is aimed at shutting down any inter-provincial trade in live chickens.
There is no indication that the premiers of either province is prepared to veto this deal. Perhaps they don't know about it.
Nor are national authorities, such as the Chicken Farmers of Canada national marketing agency and its supervisory body, the Farm Products Council of Canada, prepared to veto the deal.
I wonder what Prime Minister Stephen Harper thinks about this deal, given the time and effort he has put into negotiating international agreements to reduce trade barriers. Does he even know what's happening in his own back yard?
It seems that people involved in chicken production or processing in Ontario and Quebec have either been bought off by concessions to reach this agreement, or haven't got the resources to file court action.
And so we have, right before our very eyes, outright, blatant defiance of an inter-provincial trade agreement signed by all of our Canadian premiers.
Who says the farm lobby has lost clout?
