Standing Committee on Agriculture will investigate beef price gouging

Packers are 'raping' rural Canada

PERTH - An inquiry into Canada’s mad cow crisis is designed to set a few thing right, according to Peterborough MP Peter Adams.

Adams who chairs the Procedures and House Affairs committee says he’s been urging the agricultural committee to get the inquiry started as soon as possible. He expects the committee to be operational by February 20.

Price gouging will head the list of topics. He expects packers and retailers to appear before the committee to explain the difference between high prices at the food counter dismally low prices of cattle in the sale barns. But the soft approach of the committee might render it useless. One of the members of the standing committee, east central MP Larry McCormick, told a meeting of 200 at Perth that the packers are "raping rural Canada." But no one has been able to prove that. In an interview after the meeting, Farmers Forum asked him why it took eight months to look into price gouging. He said "we had the packers in last summer." When asked what they said, he responded "they cried," playing the injured party. They’ll be called in again, McCormick said.

Asked how the committee would get the truth, he said, "These are the CEOs of big companies. They’ll tell the truth."

But they won’t be under oath and company books won’t be subpoenaed, he said, because that would take too long. He said the committee has already been given legal opinions on concentration of competition in the food industry. "Two wholesalers control 60 per cent of the industry in Canada," he said.

MP Adams is insisting that the hearings be televised and available through the parliamentary channel. Television coverage, he says, will give the public a chance to view the depth of the catastrophe in rural Canada. Most people in eastern Canada think mad cow is a western problem. They don’t understand that rural farmers have been effected, he said.

He believes, other than opening the border, providing more "kill capacity" is one of the best ways to alleviate the surplus cow problems. He says new meat processing plants have been planned for Charlottetown, Manitoba and western Ontario. A fourth plant is in the proposal stage at Shawville, Quebec, west of Hull.

Any groups or individuals who wish to make a presentation to the standing committee can call the Standing Committee on Agriculture clerk at 613-947-6732. The inquiry will be led by Paul Steckle, chair of the federal Standing Committee on Agriculture.