OTTAWA — Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said the Senate’s latest attempt to gut his party’s bill to protect supply management from being subject to future trade concessions is a “stab in the back” of Canadian dairy, poultry and egg farmers.
Blanchet was reacting to an amendment passed Wednesday by the Senate committee on foreign affairs that made it so the terms of Bill C-282 would not apply to existing agreements, deals that were being renegotiated or ones currently under negotiation.
Blanchet said the change effectively kills the intent of the bill and urged members of the upper chamber to reject the amendment given the results of this week’s U.S. election.
“Americans have just elected a president who, of his own admission, is promising to be very aggressive in matters of protectionism and to be very aggressive in renegotiating the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement,” he told reporters Thursday.
“We therefore need to exclude supply management from all future trade concessions.”
The Bloc’s bill in its original form seeks to amend the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Act to prevent the supply managed sectors of eggs, poultry and dairy products from being subject to international trade concessions.
The bill was adopted by a majority of MPs in a vote in the House of Commons last year. In addition to the Bloc, it earned support from the Liberal government, as well as the NDP and the Greens, while Conservative MPs were split on the proposal.
Producers in supply managed sectors have complained that recent trade negotiations have chipped away at the decades-old system and fear for its future.
But former trade negotiators and farming groups have warned that protecting those agricultural sectors could mean that other sectors of the Canadian economy will be on the chopping block when CUSMA is set to undergo its first review in 2026.
The chair of the Senate committee of foreign affairs, Sen. Peter Boehm, himself a former diplomat who has held several senior foreign affairs positions, has expressed concerns with the bill given how it could impact future trade talks.
On Wednesday, Sen. Peter Harder, a former Senate representative for the government who is also opposed to the bill, tabled an amendment to limit its scope to non-existing trade agreements. It was adopted by a majority of members in the Senate committee.
Sen. Marc Gold, the current government representative, said the change “significantly weakens” the intention of the bill which is protecting supply management. He said it would exempt 37 trade agreements either in force, in renegotiation or in exploratory discussions.
“The proposed amendment, in my respectful view, would so diminish the scope of the protection that the bill purports to give as to render it useless,” he said.
The bill, as amended, is expected to be debated and voted on in the Senate later in November. Senators could decide to reject the amendment completely. But if they adopt the bill with the proposed changes, it will need to go back to the House of Commons.
Blanchet said that he is confident that senators will reject the amendment. But if they don’t, he said his party could be open to ending the paralysis in Parliament from the last six weeks to make sure that C-282 passes in its original form.
“If we’re putting on the table an issue as crucial as supply management, the treatment of seniors or other subjects that have emerged since the U.S. election, we will do what it takes,” he said.
Blanchet said that does not mean that his party is supporting the government.
In fact, the Bloc has vowed to launch discussions with other opposition parties to bring down the government as the first opportunity with a non-confidence motion. Blanchet said the Conservatives are ready for an election but the NDP is not in a rush to do the same.
— With files from Stephanie Taylor.
National Post
[email protected]
Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.