Bloc leader, MPs and farmers press Senate to pass supply management bill

OTTAWA — Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet and MPs from all parties in the House of Commons were on Parliament Hill on Thursday to call for the Senate to pass a Bloc bill on supply management.

The private member’s bill seeks to protect Canada’s supply management system during international trade negotiations. It has already passed through the House of Commons with support from MPs from all parties and is now before the Senate.

The dairy, egg and poultry sectors are all supply managed, a system that regulates production levels, wholesale prices and trade.

Flanked by a large group of people representing supply-managed sectors, Blanchet commended the cross-party support at a time when he said federal institutions are at their most divided.

The Bloc has given the Liberals until Oct. 29 to pass two of its bills — the supply management bill and one that would boost old age security — or it will begin talks with other opposition parties to bring down the minority government.

While cabinet ministers voted in favour of the supply management bill, the Liberals have already signalled they don’t plan to support the Bloc’s pension legislation.

Blanchet reiterated accusations that two particular senators — Peter Boehm and Peter Harder — are blocking the supply management bill from moving forward.

“We have two senators who are putting themselves above the democratic choice of the entire Parliament and saying, ‘What I think myself is better and more important.’ Both are completely out of line of their mandate as senators, superimposing on democracy,” he said in French.

Boehm, denied blocking the bill when he spoke to reporters in Ottawa.

“This deadline came from outside. It is not part of what we do here … what we’re doing now is looking at this in some detail, as we had planned originally.”

MPs from all the major federal parties joined Blanchet on the Hill Thursday including the Bloc’s Yves Perron, the NDP’s Alistair MacGregor, and the current and former ministers of agriculture, Lawrence MacAulay and Marie-Claude Bibeau.

Sen. Pierre Dalphond, who was also in attendance, said it’s time to send the bill back to the senate floor “to debate and vote and do it as expeditiously as we can.”

Brian Bilkes, chair of the Canadian Hatching Egg Producers, spoke on behalf of supply-managed sectors and said the bill is essential to protect supply management.

“Previous trade agreements have severely hurt Canadian farmers under supply management by granting significant access to our markets. Bill C-282 protects supply management and safeguards the sectors for future negotiations,” he said.

Blanchet repeated his party’s ultimatum for the government as he spoke to reporters after the press conference.

“We gave them five weeks,” he said in French.

The Liberal government survived two non-confidence votes in the House of Commons in September, with the NDP and Bloc voting against motions put forward by the Conservatives.

The Tories said they plan to put forward more non-confidence motions in the weeks to come, though they would likely need the support of both the Bloc and the NDP to bring down the government.

The Conservatives previously voted in favour of the Bloc’s other proposed legislation, which seeks to increase old age security payments for seniors under age 75. They also supported a Bloc motion in the House last week calling on the government to give spending authority for the bill.

But on Thursday the Conservative party leader wouldn’t commit to raising pensions if he were in power.

Instead, Pierre Poilievre doubled down on his claims that the carbon tax has caused higher food prices, saying his party’s support for the Bloc’s motion was meant as a signal to acknowledge that seniors need more purchasing power.

“There are other ways to do it, though. For example, by axing the carbon tax and lowering income tax, you can allow seniors to keep more of their pension and their retirement income,” Poilievre said at a press conference in Toronto.

He promised the Conservative platform will include a “low-tax plan” that will benefit seniors.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 10, 2024.

— With files from Émilie Bergeron

Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press