Mr. Speaker, I would like to wish you and all my colleagues a happy new year as I stand in this brand new chamber here in West Block.
I am pleased to start off in fulfilling my role as the critic for agriculture by following up on a question I brought up in Centre Block last year. During that time, I asked about the USMCA agreement and its effect on our supply managed sectors, and the hon. Minister of Foreign Affairs stood and gave me an answer.
The Liberals had consistently talked about not making any concessions in the negotiations on supply management, but unfortunately, when the details of the deal were announced, we did get the answers, and we did find out that there were some notable concessions made.
This has been a thorn in the side of the supply managed sectors through all the trade agreements, going back to CETA, the CPTPP and now the USMCA. Time and time again, whether it has been a Conservative or a Liberal government, they have been told that the government would be standing up for the sectors. Then they get the details, and they are let down.
Just how much are they being let down by? Let us look at the individual sectors. The egg farmers in Canada, under the USMCA, have to allow an intake of 10 million dozen eggs in the first year, and the export number will gain 1% every year for 10 years.
The chicken sector is going to see double the previous concessions, which is going to result in more than 12 million kilograms of chicken coming into Canada. Turkey is going to see additional access equivalent to 3.5% of the previous year's Canadian turkey production.
The dairy sector is going to see an additional 3.6%. In fact, the Dairy Farmers of Canada has now estimated that once all three trade deals come into effect, total dairy imports will make up 18% of the Canadian dairy market.
When I speak to Canadians and speak to farmers in my riding, and I have no doubt that this happens right across the country, there is an inherent interest in buying local goods. Time and time again, we see answers within the 80% to 90% affirmative rate that Canadians want to buy local. Supply management is the system that allows us to control price and control production, but it depends on that third very important pillar of import control. If we do not have that, we are undermining the entire system, because it is like a three-legged stool. It cannot stand unless all three pillars are stable and strong.
One can stand in the House and say that one supports supply management, but we judge a government not by its words but by its actions. Time and again, these farmers have been let down. The word they have used to describe it is “pawns”. They feel that they have been pawns in the negotiations. For those of us who like to play chess, we know that the pawn is the unit that is most often sacrificed at the beginning of the game to advance a player's interest, and that is precisely what has happened to our supply managed farmers time and time again.
To follow up on the general theme of what my question was last year, I am wondering, with regard to our supply managed sector, if the parliamentary secretary could go into a bit more detail on this compensation package. Why is it that the Liberals have continually promised one thing and then done another? Are they not seeing through the hypocrisy their own government is guilty of? Have they not been listening to supply managed farmers, who have really had it with the Liberal government's false promises and it leading them down the garden path?