4 min read
Written by Marc Xuereb
Originally posted on August 16th, 2011
Two Ontario farm leaders recently voiced concern over the proposed Comprehensive Economic & Trade Agreement (CETA) with Europe.
Ann Slater is a Perth County Farmer and Board member with the National Farmers’ Union. She wrote a letter to Ontario Farmer wondering how the federal government can pursue negotiations on CETA when it must know that it threatens success stories like the Ontario government’s Broader Public Sector Investment Fund, which is helping public institutions buy more local food.
Nick Ferri is the Chair of the Greater Toronto Area Agricultural Action Committee. After reading Ann Slater’s letter, he wondered aloud in his newsletter to GTAAAC members whether the need to support local producers and processors should trump international trade interests.
Both articles are reproduced below. See also the previous blog post on CETA on this website.
Ontario Farmer
July 19, 2011
Dear Editor:
The article in the July 5 edition of the Ontario Farmer about the Broader Public Sector Investment Fund and how the food service sector is using the fund to increase its use of Ontario grown food, is a good news story. It is also an initiative that may soon be stopped dead in its tracks by a trade agreement our federal government is negotiating, behind closed doors, with the European Union trade department.
Under the covered procurement section of Canada-Europe Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA,) all governments and government entities, including schools, hospitals, universities and municipalities will be prohibited from favouring local goods and services, including local food. This will be subject to certain thresholds, which are still being negotiated, but the parties have already agreed tenders cannot be broken up in such a way that they will fall within those thresholds.
This is the first time Canada is negotiating an international trade agreement that reaches beyond the federal level into provincial and municipal jurisdictions. CETA will jeopardize local food procurement arrangements, and will undermine programs like the Broader Public Sector Investment Fund set up by the Ontario government to increase the amount of Ontario food purchased by municipal, school, university and hospital food services.
The Europeans consider covered procurement to be the key piece of the trade agreement. In a public lecture, the EU Ambassador to Canada, Mattias Brinkmann, said that Europe needs public procurement because that is where they see a market for their exporters. The National Farmers Union analysis of draft texts of the agreement show that Europe is hardening its position on covered procurement.
Both the Canadian government and the EU have agreed to not make any information on the trade agreement public until negotiations are complete. The National Farmers Union has obtained leaked copies of the draft text and Canada?s chief negotiator has confirmed that the leaked text is accurate. In the Throne speech, the federal government said they want to sign CETA by the end of the year. Why the hurry without any public discussion? Why the secrecy? The opportunity for large food service providers, like schools, universities and hospitals, to support Ontario farmers by favouring local food, is being dealt away — what else is our government giving away at the request of corporate interests? The provinces are involved in the negotiations — how committed is the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs to supporting opportunities for Ontario farmers to sell their produce to the people of Ontario, including public institutions?
Ann Slater
NFU Board Member
GTA-AAC Message from the Chair
August 12, 2011
I recently read an article that left me both confused and frustrated.
As you may know, we have been working on an agrifood strategy and ten year action plan for the Golden Horseshoe for the past year and a half and are close to a public release. The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) and the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) are lobbying for a National Food Strategy and received the support of the provincial agricultural ministers at their meeting a few weeks ago in St. Andrews, New Brunswick with their federal counterpart, the Honourable Gerry Ritz.
A major component of all the food strategies is the procurement of local food for use in the public sector, such as in schools, hospitals, universities and government cafeterias. This practice would go a long way in helping local farmers, food processors and food service businesses to increase their profitability. There are a few champions in this effort. Local Food Plus has branded and developed markets for sustainable local food; Gordon Food Service, one of the largest food service providers in North America, is sourcing over 600 local food items and marketing them to their customers. The Broader Public Sector Investment Fund, a partnership between the Greenbelt Fund and the Ontario Ministry of Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), has helped to make grants available to groups who strive to increase the Ontario content of food available in food service outlets, public institutions and retail food stores.
A letter to the editor published in the July 19, 2011 issue of the Ontario Farmer by Anne Slater, a board member of the National Farmers Union (NFU), has left me confused. The NFU obtained a leaked draft text copy of the Canada-Europe Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), with the authenticity confirmed by Canada’s chief negotiator. Although the position of the federal government hasn’t been made clear, the procurement section of CETA states that, “all government and government entities, including schools, hospitals, universities and municipalities will be prohibited from favouring local goods and services, including local food”, which leaves me feeling frustrated. Canada wanted to have a signed CETA agreement by the end of the year.
What will this mean for all the good work that has been done to promote local food procurement? I realize that we cannot provide all of the food items necessary to supply the needs of the citizens of our province but we definitely need to favour our local farmers and food processors! When governments make decisions they should be made with the best interests of the majority of Canadians in mind. Can we trust them to protect the farming community, the very people that feed them?