Up to 80,000 jobs would be lost if Canada gives up supply management: report

Montreal – La Coop fédérée had a warning for negotiators of the North American Free Trade Agreement: “the Canadian supply management system should not be used as a bargaining chip.”

The company released a statement saying that removing supply management would seriously harm economic and social impacts for many parts of Canada.

La Coop fédérée, along with Exceldor coopérative, Burnbrae Farms, Nutrigroupe, the Fédération des producteurs d’oeufs du Québec, Les Éleveurs de volailles du Québec and the Producteurs d’œufs d’incubation du Québec commissioned a report from PWC Canada that found “between 58,000 and 80,000 jobs are threatened in Canada in the event that the supply management system disappears.”

Consequences

According to the study, says the statement, one of the effects of not having supply management would be “far fewer products from local producers will be available to consumers.”

Another effect would be “a market share loss of 80% to 90% of Canadian egg production, which will leave them with 10% to 20% of the current market, whereas the market share for chicken production may decrease by 40% to 70%.

The organizations also predict that the “vast majority of the Canadian turkey industry may disappear.”

Canadian GDP would experience a decrease ranging from $4.6 billion to $6.3 billion.

Consumers

Consumers on the other hand may see prices drop but the decrease will be “moderate,” say the organizations.

Consumers will see more eggs and chicken from the U.S. flooding the Canadian market; and provinces will likely lose egg and chicken production and that also means the loss of jobs.

To read more on the report, which is called Supply Management in Egg and Poultry: The Economic Impacts of Changes to Canada’s Supply Management System, click here.