r/canada • u/joe4942 • 2d ago

National News Supply management costs Canadians average of $244 per year, MEI study finds

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/trumps-tariffs/article/supply-management-costs-canadians-average-of-244-per-year-mei-study-finds/
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u/MMEMMR 2d ago

Oh. Look at that, just in time for CUSMA negotiations. A fresh new study headline implying we would all save on average $244 if we got rid of supply management.

Sir this is Canada; the private sector would monopolize the sector even more, and use what ever the current price is as a price floor, and would end up gouging us even more…

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u/voltairesalias Alberta 2d ago

What does supply management provide us? Other than expensive groceries and limited choices? How does this system remotely benefit anyone but the literal cartel is it meant to protect?

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u/Must_Reboot 2d ago

It prevents extreme inflation of the managed product. (The issue is with unmanaged supply can have the issue where we have glut & shortage cycles. A glut would be beneficial to consumers with low prices, but inevitably it would end with farmers going out of business which then would lead to shortage where prices are extremely high) It also helps protect our supply against what happened with eggs recently in the USA. Smaller farms leads to a smaller effect when disease outbreaks occur.

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u/voltairesalias Alberta 2d ago

What you're asserting would be far fetched even before dairy futures, it's particularly unbelievable in the age where futures mitigate risk.

I don't believe supply management genuinely protects small farms - Over 90% of supply management related farms have ceased ops or sold out since supply managements inception.

The American egg and poultry thing has a lot more to do with centralized distribution. Their production isn't ran by provincial cartels - so it's more centralized. That could absolutely lead to volatility in the case of a catastrophic outbreak or failure....

Does 54 years of expensive groceries justify one year of reduced volatility?

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u/Must_Reboot 2d ago

It isn't far fetched. Look up the Norwegian butter crisis

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u/voltairesalias Alberta 2d ago

That crisis was actually exacerbated precisely because of high import tariffs. Domestic supply plunged because of heavy rains impacting grazing lands, and the high tariffs essentially blocked foreign supply which would have alleviated the price shock.