Statistics Canada says there were just over 13.3 million households in Canada at the time of the 2011 census, a number that has surely grown since then.
The numbers crunchers at the agency rather dryly define the term as “… a person or group of persons who occupy the same dwelling and do not have a usual place of residence elsewhere in Canada or abroad.”
Drilling down a bit further of course, it becomes apparent that most of these are families of one type or another, in all the variation that modern society encompasses. There are traditional nuclear families, childless couples, single-parent households and so forth.
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In Canada, one thing these households all share is that a number of their most basic foods are produced under the supply management system. In those sectors, there are far fewer families involved in producing this bounty. In the dairy sector, for example, the federal Agriculture Department says just over 11,000 farms shipped milk in 2016.
It’s when those numbers are broken down that it becomes truly impressive. Each of these operations furnishes the dairy needs of 1,200 Canadian households.
The dairy industry should be very proud of that accomplishment. It produces healthy and wholesome products that nourish the nation.
A very similar trend can be seen running throughout the supply-managed sector, with a comparatively small number of farms helping to feed an enormous number of households.
Within this efficiency are a few dangers to the sector, however. One is the lack of political clout to advocate on its own behalf. Another is the danger that the intricacies of how the prices of supply-managed products are set will be ignored for political purposes.
A recent article by Glacier FarmMedia writer John Greig highlights this danger (Bernier makes supply management an issue). In this article he reports that Conservative leadership candidate Maxime Bernier is raising the issue in new and unapologetic ways, promising to axe the system if he is elected party leader and then forms government.
It is Bernier’s right to hold this position, and it’s important to note that while he wants to do away with supply management, he doesn’t appear to want to see the affected farmers undergo undue hardship. His policy calls for a special levy that would over time build up enough funds to compensate farmers for their earlier purchase of quota.
Dairy farmers don’t like the idea much, of course, and in the article they’re seen organizing in opposition, taking out party memberships to vote for others. But Bernier, ironically representing the largely agricultural heartland of Quebec known as Beauce, where supply management is well represented, seems unswayed. He notes more citizens would be positively affected by the move than negatively.
He admits there are about 5,000 people in the riding under supply management, but says the loss of about 3,000 votes, based on his results in the last election, will be more than offset by the voters who find their grocery bills lowered.
This is a political gamble for Bernier, but also a move that is true to his own world view. Many of his policies are well into the Libertarian end of the political spectrum, and it would be surprising — and inconsistent — to see him support supply management.
It brings to mind an old political metaphor that “only Nixon could go to China,” referring to that former president’s role in normalizing relations with Red China in 1972 with a historic state visit. Nixon was an ardent anti-communist and therefore had the luxury of taking this action without the risk of being painted as soft on Communism as someone like Jimmy Carter may have been.
Here in Canada some pundits have suggested that, similarly, only the NDP could significantly reform our health-care system because of that party’s perceived role as the stalwart defenders of it.
Perhaps only a politician from the Beauce could lead this conversation, for better or for worse.
Anyway one looks at it, it’s going to be a challenge for the sector, and one producers can’t afford to ignore. A steady drumbeat calling for change getting louder. In recent months, there have been a spate of opinion articles calling for action; political support also appears to be building. Bernier is simply the most recent — and high-profile — symptom of it.
If supply-managed farmers want their system to continue, and are as certain of its benefits as they seem to be, they’re going to need to be especially articulate at spelling out its advantages to all Canadians, not just themselves.
These are dangerous times for supply management as the sector tiptoes through a minefield.
