Monday, February 26, 2018

Wynne asks feds for $1.2 billion for agriculture

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne wants the federal government to give Ontario’s quota-holding farmers $1.4 billion over the next 10 years as compensation for Canada closing the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

She also wants $1.26 billion for the auto sector.

Wynne made the requests when she spoke recently to the Toronto Region Board of Trade.

The dairy and poultry supply management marketing boards have been reminding the federal government that the previous Conservative government offered more than $4 billion in compensation, including promises that profits and quota prices would not decline.

That was one of the dumbest political promises I've ever seen. Who in our society gets a financial guarantee for anything, let alone egregious profits from supply management?

True, the profit guarantee would have declined over a 15-year period, but surely supply management has made enough profit from the pockets of Canadian consumers, including our poorest people, to look after its own future.