I have a return to question asked by Mr. Gargan on November 15, 1994 regarding the study on egg quotas for the Hay River Reserve.
The Government of the Northwest Territories has been actively pursuing entry into the national supply management systems. Membership in these systems would include the application of production quotas.
In July 1994, the government was successful in securing from federal/provincial Ministers of Agriculture their support and agreement to proceed with negotiating access to the supply management regimes by dealing directly with the National Farm Products Marketing Council, as opposed to the separate agencies and their respective signatories.
The National Farm Products Council is the supervising agency for all supply management systems in Canada and reports directly to the federal Minister of Agriculture.
The federal/provincial Ministers directed the marketing council to prepare a report for a December meeting of Ministers of Agriculture on the means by which the Northwest Territories would gain access to the systems, what legislative requirements would have to be enacted and other conditions which would have to be met. The National Farm Products Marketing Council and the department jointly tabled a report with Ministers in December.
The report offered that the Northwest Territories required the following minimum conditions be met:
-access must result in full and unequivocal signatory status; that means everybody has to sign off on it;
-access must be accompanied by a distinct allocation for each commodity; and,
-access must involve the entire geographical area of the Northwest Territories -- in other words, eggs for Hay River and eggs for Iqaluit -- and not be limited to a specific area or region.
The report provided that in order to offer access and meet the requirements of the Northwest Territories, the Ministers of Agriculture would have to agree to amend the proclamation for supply management. Ministers unanimously agreed to this requirement.
On the matter of a distinct entry level for quotas, Ministers agreed that work should continue between the department, council and provinces, with a report due in March, 1995. All things considered, a resolution to this long-outstanding issue appears imminent. Thank you.