Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House today to revisit a question I asked the Prime Minister earlier in the year regarding our supply managed farmers and the trade deals the government has signed, more specifically, the new United States-Canada agreement.
The three main pillars of supply management are control of the price, control of the production and import controls. If any one of those three pillars is affected, then like a three-legged stool, the system cannot sustain itself.
We know that the system was created in the 1970s to deal with price fluctuations. Today we can thank it for employing 348,000 of our fellow Canadians, contributing $6.9 billion in tax revenues and contributing $29.6 billion to Canada's GDP.
However, if we look at the trade deals the Liberal government has signed, the CETA, the CPTPP and now the USMCA, we see that despite the Liberal agriculture minister standing in this House and repeatedly talking about how he supports the system, the Liberals keep partitioning off parts of the market that we hold so dear. If we look at the dairy sector, with CETA, we lost 1.4%. Under the CPTPP, we lost 3.1%, and now, under the USMCA, it is 3.6%. If we add that all up just for dairy, it means that a total of 18% of the Canadian market will be imported dairy products, which will result in an annual loss of $1.3 billion.
When we ask Canadians about their thoughts with regard to our farmers and locally produced goods, they say, in overwhelming numbers, time and time again, that they prefer buying Canadian and supporting Canadian farmers.
I asked the Prime Minister if he was prepared to make concessions on the trade deal, and he said at the time that he was not going to reveal the government's negotiating strategy. Of course, we all know now that the Liberals have been partitioning off parts of our supply managed sector. However, Canadians overwhelmingly support it.
One of the basic tenets of trade is that we seek a good in return for something we do not produce. Canadian farmers are more than capable, with our population of 35 million, to produce the eggs, produce the chickens and produce the dairy products we require. Furthermore, Canadians are more than prepared to support their local farmers to do that.
We know that the supply managed sector contributes to local food security. In my province of British Columbia, it represents 40% of agriculture. It is unique. It is the largest sector of any province in this country.
What I want to draw to Canadians' attention is that one party in this House has consistently stood up to defend supply management, and that is the NDP. I am very proud to be able to stand in this House as our party's agriculture critic to say publicly to our supply managed farmers that I am here, I support them and we will continue to call out the Liberal government on the parts of their market it is selling off to foreign interests.