OTTAWA — The Bloc Québécois says it is “very concerned” that one of the two bills it is prioritizing to keep the Trudeau government in power is stuck in the Senate.
Earlier this week, many senators appeared reluctant to support Bill C-282, which would automatically exclude supply management from any international trade agreement Canada enters.
The Bloc’s agriculture, agri-food and supply management critic, Yves Perron, said Friday that while the bill appears to be moving forward, concerns remain.
“We are very concerned that a study on Africa will continue and lead to a delay in the study of C-282, especially since some senators have already expressed hostility toward our bill,” Perron said in a statement.
“Hostility” erupted Wednesday afternoon, as senators questioned Perron and two Bloc colleagues at the Standing Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
Many senators expressed concern about the bill’s “narrow scope.”
“By rigidly protecting supply management, we risk alienating export-dependent regions like ours that depend on the free market and trade agreements,” suggested Sen. Mohamed-Iqbal Ravalia, an independent senator from Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Bill has been criticized by the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance who argues that C-282 “will hurt the 90 per cent of farmers who depend on trade.” According to the alliance, Agri-food exporters exported $92.8 billion in agri-food products in 2022 and supported over a million jobs in urban and rural communities across Canada.
“Setting a protectionist precedent undermines Canada’s leadership and work at international forum like the WTO,” argues the alliance, who also said this Bill “prioritizes the economic interests one sector above the economic interests of any other sector in Canada.”
These arguments appear to have echoed all the way to the upper house of Parliament.
Before senators even had a chance to ask MPs questions, Sen. Peter Boehm, the chair of the committee, rose to voice his opposition to the bill. Senator Boehm, who has held several senior positions in the Department of Foreign Affairs, said his opposition was not to supply management, but rather “to limit the executive power of the government under the royal prerogative to negotiate international trade agreements.”
“I don’t think it’s in Canada’s national interest to pass this bill because it divides the agricultural community … and it will impact future trade negotiations,” he said. He mentioned, for example, that the free trade agreement with the United States and Mexico will be renegotiated in 2026.
Progressive Sen. Peter Harder, a former government representative in the Senate and former deputy minister, accused the Bloc of amending a “founding law of a department” that would prevent negotiators from doing their job in future trade deals.
“You’re excluding a particular sector from the negotiations and that’s why this bill worries me a lot,” Harder said.
Harder then asked the Bloc if other sectors, such as auto or steel, “should raise their hands and amend a departmental law as well.”
The Bloc rejected the suggestion, but was immediately interrupted by Harder. “You’re special,” the senator said, referring to the special treatment given to supply management in the Bloc’s bill.
“We find ourselves in a situation where politicians are hypocrites with their producers. On the one hand, we tell them ‘we love you, we’re going to protect you,’ but at the same time ‘we’re going to sell you on the side.’ We’re creating insecurity,” Perron said.
The Bloc maintains that before 2008, despite multiple trade agreements, supply management had remained essentially intact in Canada. However, since then, three new international agreements have been negotiated and supply management was on the table in each negotiation.
“It’s a precedent. When you put something on the table, in the next round of negotiations, our partner will ask for more. And if we destabilize our system, it won’t work anymore,” Perron said.
The Bloc says that the United States, with sugar and cotton, and Japan, with rice, have laws in place to protect these products from concessions in international trade agreements.
Bill C-282 was passed by a majority of MPs in the House of Commons in June 2023 and has been in the Senate ever since. It is now considered a significant piece of legislation since the Bloc has decided to force the Liberals to pass it if they want the party’s support in the minority Parliament.
The Bloc announced Wednesday its intention to work to bring down the Trudeau government if Bills C-282 and C-319, which seeks to increase pensions for seniors aged 65 to 74 by 10 per cent, are not adopted by Oct. 29.
“We are closely following the progress of the work, because one does not go without the other and both Bills C-319 and C-282 must be implemented for our demands to be considered satisfied,” said Perron.
National Post
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