Martha Hall Findlay, former prominent federal Liberal, and
Jack Mintz of the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary offer
the proposal in an opinion piece in the Globe and Mail.
Their plan is similar to one Australia used when it ended
supply management.
Hall Findlay, who ran for the federal Liberal leadership, is the only politician with the courage to say supply management is extremely expensive and is not working for Canadians.
In Australia, “compensation and transition payments were funded by
maintaining and collecting a small portion of the system’s existing price
supports for a limited period of time.
“Some farmers cashed out for a decent retirement; those who stayed
in the business became more efficient and more productive,” Hall Findlay and
Mintz say.
Saputo Inc. of Montreal recently spent a small fortune to buy a processing company in Australia, rather than investing in Canada, with the intention of exporting to China and other Pacific-rim countries.
Hall-Findlay and Mintz propose an immediate phase-out of import quotas, which
would bring the price of milk to the U.S. level.
“A more gradual approach would also delay Canadian farmers’
ability to begin exporting, and allow competitors from Australia, New Zealand
and the U.S. to secure and consolidate their export-market shares,” they wrote.
Their plan would end any value for quota, which they
estimate at $23 billion at $30,000 per cow.
