Supply management a heavy focus at local candidate debate in Hastings, Lennox-Addington riding

The candidates for the Lennox and Addington riding prepare to answer questions from the crowd at the Huntingdon Veterans Community Hall in Ivanhoe. Photo by Sarah Cooke, QNet News

By Sarah Cooke

IVANHOE – The issue of supply management dominated a good chunk of the debate at an all-candidates meeting in Ivanhoe Wednesday night.

Anthony Kooistra, a dairy farmer from Stirling, posed this question to the candidates in the Hastings, Lennox and Addington riding at the debate last night: “What government supports supply management going forward in trade deals?”

Alexander Murphy of the People’s Party started the debate. He was standing in for local candidate Adam Gray – who was unable to attend due to work.

“We’re going to abolish supply management quite frankly,” Murphy told the crowd.

He went on to say that he stood by what he said in his opening statement and that he wouldn’t pander to a special interest group and that supply management was overcharging Canadians.

He also said that both Australia and New Zealand had abolished their supply management systems and seen an increase in profits in their dairy, egg and poultry economies.

Green Party candidate Sari Watson said that the Green Party “couldn’t disagree more” on the PPC’s stance on supply management.

“We plan to protect supply management, we understand how important local food sources are,” she said. “One of the main ways to combat climate change is to stop importing food from around the world.”

She emphasized that the riding has such rich agricultural land and that more work needed to be done to get their product into Canadian market instead of importing food from hundreds of miles away.

Conservative candidate, Derek Sloan, called attention to the carton of Sealtest milk he was drinking from, stating that he had brought the milk there for a reason.

“The first is to remind you of our leader Andrew Scheer who jokingly sipped on milk and his election to leadership of our party was dependant on his support of the supply management system,” he said.

Sloan said that regarding the countries mentioned by Murphy, those industries received “massive subsidies” from the government so it wasn’t an “even playing field.”

He said that he had travelled around the riding talking to people about supply management.

“It’s a system that works, it’s a system that maintains quality and stability for our farmers; it’s something we’re behind and yeah, we’re going to stick up for it.”

He concluded his statement by saying that the government needs to do more for farmers.

Mike Bossio aimed to show some perspective on the economic contribution dairy farmers gave to the Hastings, Lennox and Addington riding.

“We have 1,400 people employed on family dairy farms and they generate 160 million dollars of economic activity in this riding alone,” he said. “That is sustainability – that is what rural sustainability looks like.”

He said that supply management is essential to rural sustainability and that the Liberal Party was the one to bring in supply management and that the party would continue to defend it.

Bossio reminded the crowd that Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau visited the riding and met with dairy farmers to promise them that there would be no more free trade deals that involved any further decrease in the quote of supply management.

NDP candidate David Tough said that he’s heard from farmers and rural communities that supply management is a system that works.

“It is part of the fabric of rural life in Ontario and the NDP will not only defend supply management we will also commit to further trade deals or negotiations to fighting for protection for the industries affected.”

Tough made a specific remark to PPC’s accusation of overcharging Canadians through supply management, saying that “the overcharging amount is peanuts compared to the other things that people have to pay for.”

“The amount that your paying on milk and eggs and butter is going to be extremely minimal – there are so many better ways to help low income people than to get rid of supply management,” Tough said.