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People here are giving you some pretty ignorant ideas. The reasons things like this exist for certain industries in Canada is to maintain healthy markets while

People here are giving you some pretty ignorant ideas. The reasons things like this exist for certain industries in Canada is to maintain healthy markets while protecting the smallest of players in those markets. Things like Maple Syrup and Milk are tightly controlled because it ensures that in both good times and bad that the market does not get too volatile and squeeze the smallest producers out of it. Usually the strongest opponents of these controls and regulations are the giant players or external interests that either want to be able to dump product to undercut and corner the market or eliminate the ability for any industry to collectively bargain for better deals when it comes to things like shipping infrastructure (take railways as an example). And then there is Canada's proximity and cultural similarity to the United States, which while being it's greatest strength is probably its greatest weakness. The USA heavily subsidizes its primary industries that it is in Canada's national security interests to keep up high walls, regulations, and "cartels" to keep things like Canada food security in Canadian hands.

tonyarkles 5y ago
> Usually the strongest opponents of these controls and regulations are the giant players That’s only partly true. The other side of it is that many of these regulations also ensure that the giant players remain firmly entrenched. As an example, it is illegal for me to go directly to a dairy farmer and buy a gallon of milk directly; it has to work its way through the entire supply chain first, even though the producer is running his operation in compliance with all food safety regulations (otherwise his milk wouldn’t be allowed into the supply chain anyway) Edit: or, before the Wheat Board was torn down, a farmer couldn’t directly sell his wheat to the grain mill down the road (or across the border), it had to go through the CWB. This kept a lot of middlemen very happy.
- Tsarbomb 5y ago
  I don't disagree with what you are saying and you are not wrong, but it is also key to remember that when the Wheat Board was dismantled, CP and CN rail immediately started maximizing their profitability to the extreme by cutting down on available rail cars, leaving a lot of small producers out in the cold, especially if they were in a geographically disadvantaged position. It becomes extra nasty when you realize it is American interests that own large portions of CP and CN, in particular Bill Gates alone owns more than 10% of CN.

tonyarkles 5y ago

> Usually the strongest opponents of these controls and regulations are the giant players That’s only partly true. The other side of it is that many of these regulations also ensure that the giant players remain firmly entrenched. As an example, it is illegal for me to go directly to a dairy farmer and buy a gallon of milk directly; it has to work its way through the entire supply chain first, even though the producer is running his operation in compliance with all food safety regulations (otherwise his milk wouldn’t be allowed into the supply chain anyway) Edit: or, before the Wheat Board was torn down, a farmer couldn’t directly sell his wheat to the grain mill down the road (or across the border), it had to go through the CWB. This kept a lot of middlemen very happy.

Tsarbomb 5y ago
I don't disagree with what you are saying and you are not wrong, but it is also key to remember that when the Wheat Board was dismantled, CP and CN rail immediately started maximizing their profitability to the extreme by cutting down on available rail cars, leaving a lot of small producers out in the cold, especially if they were in a geographically disadvantaged position. It becomes extra nasty when you realize it is American interests that own large portions of CP and CN, in particular Bill Gates alone owns more than 10% of CN.