Supply management costs Canadians too much, says Conservative leadership candidate Aitchison

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Canada’s supply management system has proven itself too costly for Canadian families, says Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate Scott Aitchison and for that reason, it needs to go.

In an interview on CTV News Channel’s Power Play on Wednesday, Aitchison said scrapping the decades-old policy would equally help out Canadian farmers, by enhancing global competitiveness.

Supply management is a system of controlling the production of certain commodities – eggs, dairy, and poultry – to meet the demand of consumers and ultimately stabilize prices.

“Supply management needs to end because it's a question of affordability for Canadian families...reports have shown that supply management adds almost $600 a year to the average Canadian families’ grocery bill. That's insane. But the other thing it does is it limits Canadian farmers, world class Canadian dairy farmers, from marketing products around the world,” he said.

“This isn’t about pitting farmers against consumers. This is about providing opportunity for farmers to market their world-class products.”

Supply management was a point of contention in the 2017 Conservative leadership race, namely between Andrew Scheer and Maxime Bernier. The former was a staunch supporter of it, the latter a strong challenger.

Asked whether the Ontario MP fears the political cost of coming out against the system this time around, Aitchison said it’s good conservative policy.

“There's no question that the transition away from 50 years of bad policy will take some time and we'll have to negotiate and work with farmers. There will be some compensation required as well. But any investments the Canadian government makes in our agricultural sector should be designed to help them export their products and build their business,” he said.

And in response to the age-old argument that American farmers would wipe out their Canadian counterparts in a deregulated system, Aitchison said it’s a “defeatist” sentiment.

“We have some of the best dairy farms in the world. We have some of the best product in the world. Let's have some more pride in what we do and market that around the world,” he said.

Watch Aitchison’s interview at the top of this article.