EDITOR:
I would like to clarify a point in Edith Ling’s letter, “Price difference proves nothing” (The Guardian). Her statement, “However, to blame supply management for the difference the consumer pays for milk in B.C. and in P.E.I. is totally inaccurate.” Is totally inaccurate.
Nowhere, in my letter (or previous letters), do I blame supply management for the huge discrepancy in milk prices in Canada. I merely ask why the discrepancy.
Not only is the price gap huge between B.C. and P.E.I. (as another writer pointed out), but also between southern Ontario (where $3.99 is the norm for four liters, compared to our $6.49 in P.E.I.) I’ve been asking the same question for years and have rarely received any form of answer.
When I asked the large grocery chains, they told me to contact someone else. The buck passing went among them, the Canadian Dairy Commission, Dairy Farmers of Canada and finally the P.E.I. Department of Agriculture who gave me a convoluted reply but no answer.
So, if her comment, “The price difference is not the result of supply management - rather it illustrates the fact that processors and retailers have the freedom to price milk,” is accurate, I’ll ask our local processors and retailers- why not give consumers a break, like in B.C. and Ontario?
Lloyd Kerry,
Charlottetown
