Canada. Commission of Inquiry into the Marketing of Beef : The Commission of Inquiry into the Marketing of Beef and Veal was established under Order in Council P.C. 1, 6 January 1975, under Part I of the Inquiries Act (R.S.C., 1970, c.I-13) and on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. The Commission was mandated to inquire into and report on beef and veal marketing in Canada, including: (a) the organization and methods of operation of the marketing system for all grades of beef and veal, including all live cattle, calves, and carcass beef and veal sold in Canada, whether imported or domestically produced considering: (i) each step in the distribution and processing system, and (ii) any geographical differences in the marketing system; (b) price-setting mechanisms for all beef and veal sold in Canada, including the price spreads; (c) the intermediaries in the system and the services they provide; and (d) the effectiveness of the marketing system, including both the reasonableness of the costs incurred and of the price spreads that occur at each level and over the entire system. The commissioners were Maxwell Weir Mackenzie, Chairman, Lydia Patry-Cullen and Hu Harries. The secretary was Gerald W. Doucet.
Historically there has been a relatively free flow of world trade in cattle and beef. In response to supply or demand pressures, western Canadian producers export feeder cattle to the United States, eastern dairy producers export veal calves, and packers import slaughter cattle. Processors and retailers import beef cuts, mostly from the United States, and frozen boneless manufacturing beef, mostly from Oceania. For this reason, and given the size of the Canadian beef and veal industry compared with other producing countries, our marketing system has been influenced by international forces, especially those of the United States. Also, the Canadian marketing system has been affected by supplies from other countries and the marketing policies these countries. When some traditional importing countries established stringent controls on imports of live cattle and beef in 1973, the normal pattern of Canada's trade was distorted. For example, the announcement by President Nixon of the United States in March 1973 of a retail price ceiling on all meats (subsequently relaxed for all meats except beef) until September 1973 had a special impact on Canada.
In Canada during the early 1970s, when the number of cattle was increasing in the world, attention was focussed on the problem of how to market surplus grain. Producers used the surplus to raise more cattle in order to capitalize on a buoyant world market for beef. Soon Canada (and the world) had a general surplus situation by late 1973. However, for a variety of reasons, consumer prices were high.
A dramatic increase in the price of feed grain prices put feedlot operators in Canada into financial crises and many were in danger of going bankrupt. Suddenly the value of livestock sharply declined because feedlot operators bid less for replacement cattle obtained from producers.
The demand for dairy calves for Canadian feedlots, and the demand for young calves for the export market, declined sharply as record numbers of beef-type calves became available at very low prices. As in the case of cow/calf producers in other parts of Canada, veal calf producers, mostly in Quebec and Ontario, were caught in a serious cost-price squeeze in 1974, and it became too costly to finish calves to vealing weights. Dairy producers were forced to destroy surplus newborn calves and, to bring it to the public's attention, they did it in front of television cameras. This shocked consumers who wanted an explanation. In the face of high retail beef prices, consumers thought that some of the world's starving people could have used these calves. The public believed that the prices paid for beef and veal were high in relation to low producer returns and did not properly reflect price variations at the producer level.
On 2 October 1974 the Minister of Agriculture, Eugene Whelan, revealed in the House of Commons that the ministers responsible for agriculture and consumer affairs in the four western provinces had asked for an inquiry into the beef industry and that the Government of Canada was considering the possibility of establishing one. Later, on 1 November 1974, Whelan explained in the House that the government was prepared to conduct an inquiry if a report of the Food Prices Review Board on beef prices "did not accomplish the things we thought it should." The findings of that report were not broad enough. The government wanted a study on the beef marketing system and how beef prices were set, rather than a study of beef prices for a given period, such as the Food Prices Review Board had provided.
Consequently, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau issued a press release on 7 January 1975 announcing the appointment of a commission to inquire into the marketing of all grades of beef and veal in Canada. (See House of Commons, Debates, 2-3, 31 October and 1 November 1974, pp. 31, 96, 945-949 and 957- 961; Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Marketing of Beef and Veal, Ottawa: Supply and Services Canada, 1976, pp. 3-5).
Hearings of the commission were held in all the provincial capitals of Canada, except Fredericton and Victoria, and in Moncton, Chicoutimi, Montreal, London, Ottawa, Brandon, Swift Current, Saskatoon, Lloydminister, Calgary, St. Paul, Stettler, Innisfail, Claresholm, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Vancouver and Kamloops from 24 March to 27 June 1975. There were 114 exhibits filed with the commission. RG33-72 General Inventory
