Statement Presented to the House of Commons by

Paul Steckle , M.P., Huron-Bruce ( Ontario)

March 22nd, 2005

Mr. Speaker:

2005 marks the 40 th anniversary of supply management in the chicken broiler, turkey and dairy industries.

Despite the fact that supply managed sectors provide inexpensive yet premium quality food, there are those out there who still don’t get it.

Recently, when ordering pizza, one of my constituents was confronted with a sign indicating that the pizza would now cost more because dairy farmers were charging more for milk. Notwithstanding that I have never seen a sign saying pizza prices have increased because of the cost of hydro, fuel, labour or rent, the information is erroneous.

Canadians must understand that domestic dairy goods are as inexpensive as possible. In fact, if you paid $14.24 for a medium pizza in a restaurant, the farmer’s share would be only 61¢.

Furthermore, if you directly compare US dairy prices with ours, you would find that prices here are, on average, 20% less expensive than similar items in the US.

Supply management has been a huge success and I congratulate the Government of Canada for officially recognizing this fact.