Manitoba Cooperator reports that Steve Boerchers spoke up at
a recent producer meeting, calling for the money to be spent instead on market
promotion.
The resolution was defeated, but not before Boercher made
his point that the Harper package is giving farmers a bad reputation for greed.
“It’s a bad consumer image for farmers to be cashing
government cheques in a supply managed system,” said Steve Boerchers.
“Seeing how we have enough problems otherwise that need to
be dealt with in the industry, skim milk powder, overproduction and the
diafiltered milk coming in from the United States, perhaps that money could be
used in a more productive manner,” he is quoted in the farm newspaper.
David Wiens, chairman of Dairy Farmers of Manitoba, agreed
that market promotion is an important priority, but said it’s being addressed.
The dairy farmers are also pondering a proposal to lower the
price of milk used by processors who are importing cheaper ingredients from the
U.S. The aim is to retain the market for Canadian farmers.
I think these farmers are way out of line, especially on quota values. They complain that the government can't "confiscate" their quota without compensation.
Nonsense. Quota was handed out free when supply management began for dairy and poultry farmers. It wasn't the government or taxpayers that decided to bid ridiculous prices to buy quota, and they should not have to pay one red cent - er, nickel now that pennies are gone - in compensation.
The only case they can make is that politicians, almost unanimously, pledged they would continue to support supply management. They were betrayed, but none of them can argue that they haven't seen it coming, particularly in trade negotiations.
They assumed a normal business risk and they have no more right to guaranteed profits than any other Canadian business.
