To Regulate, De-Regulate, or Self-Regulate? THAT is the Question

Many Canadians are not surprised to learn that industry does not really know what is in the best interests of civil society.

But does industry even know what's in its own best interests? Let's muse on that a little.

Canada is now in the middle of the largest meat recall in its history. Apparently, the source of this major breakout of E. coli is a meat-packing plant in Brooks, Alberta. The owners of the plant, XL Foods, have sure taken their sweet time in addressing the public about what may have led to this situation. Similarly, even though the E. coli scare was first brought to his attention back on September 4^th, our federal Agriculture Minister was nowhere to be found.

Unlike the XL owners, however, people know the name of this minister in charge of food safety.

Gerry Ritz. The first time I had ever heard of this guy was when the listeriosis outbreak of 2008 led to the deaths of 20 people. At the time, I learned that Ritz was the Agriculture Minister in the first Harper government. I also learned that he had a most pathetic sense of humour. (Readers may remember this minister’s statement included the since oft-repeated “death by a thousand cuts, that’s a thousand cold cuts,” as he chuckled about the loss of life.)

If anyone thinks that our Agriculture Minister may have learned from that experience to take these food crises seriously, think again. Only a few days ago, and with the recall expanding by the day, here is what Ritz said at a Rotary Club luncheon:

“We had some great Canadian beef for lunch. I don’t know where it came from; I don’t care. I know it’s good, I know it’s safe. You have to handle it and cook it properly.”

I know that conservatives have never been known to have a good sense of humour, but this Ritz fellow sets the bar much lower than their usual fare.

Ritz has been the MP for the Saskatchewan riding of  Battlefords-Lloydminister since 1997. His constituents voted him back into office shortly after the listeriosis tragedy and there is no reason to believe they will vote him out after this latest fiasco. I know I wouldn't vote for a guy like this, but I don't live in his riding.

But I think a case can be made that if nothing else, Gerry Ritz is an unwitting lobbyist par excellence for the tofu industry!

Perhaps having Ritz in the House of Commons, however, is not the main problem here. After all, he is but one of 165 Conservative MPs who all seem to think along the same ideological lines on most things, including the deregulation of industry.

The Harper Conservatives are a political entity bent on pushing through a corporate agenda, an agenda that is sometimes referred to as neoliberalism. Sure, they pay some lip service to their base, the social conservatives of rural English-speaking Canada. Supporting the corporate agenda, however, is the main priority of the Conservatives.

Neoliberal governments all seem to agree on four main tenets: corporate tax cuts, privatizing the commons, union busting, and deregulation. It is this last point that I want to talk about here.

Neoliberal governments are ideologically driven to forego government regulation and allow industry to self-regulate their operations. In the case of the XL E. coli outbreak, Minister Ritz pushed for this very company to regulate their own operations. To say that XL Foods failed to properly self-regulate their operations is a gross understatement.

I can recall the first time I had ever heard of a government washing their hands of regulating the meat industry in favour of self-regulation.

It was in the early 1980s and the Thatcher Conservatives were the government of Britain, having come to power on a platform of you guessed it … small government. One of Thatcher’s first moves was to shelve the outgoing Labour Government’s unannounced government inspection of the meat industry. She claimed that the meat industry should regulate itself. (With this move, the Conservatives gained a lot of farmer votes.)

Shortly afterward, the farmers discovered that many of their sheep had a strange protein virus. Ever the prudent cost-cutters, the farmers fed the infected sheep to their cows. Et voila! Mad cow disease appeared!

But there is so much more to this sordid tale of industry being allowed to self-regulate.

In 1995, the Mike Harris Conservatives were elected to government in Ontario. Harris’ “Common Sense” Revolution promised smaller government including … you got it – cut backs on water inspections. Before too long, as many readers will recall, tragedy struck a village named Walkerton. The dreaded E. coli virus had entered the town’s drinking water supply from farm run-off. This resulted in over half the town’s 5,000 people getting very sick, and even worse, seven people dying.

The Walkerton Public Utilities Commission blamed the Conservative government for not regulating water quality, for not enforcing existing legislation, and, if you can believe this, for privatizing water testing. The Walkerton tragedy cost Ontario taxpayers over $64 million! So much for the idea of small government saving money.

Okay, I think you get the picture. Allowing industry to self-regulate is a bad idea. In fact, when public health and safety is at risk, it is at best a moronic idea. With so much evidence, a case can be made that it is a criminal act.

And lest we forget about stripping away the regulations for the financial industry, let’s take a quick look at the recent economic crisis that began in the United States. Ronald Reagan chose a self-proclaimed Ayn Rand devotee, Alan Greenspan, to replace the pro-regulation Paul Volcker as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Greenspan got rid of regulations and government oversight of banking transactions, (Republican Phil Gramm finished this process off by leading the fight to repeal FDR’s Glass-Steagall Act of 1933.)

These Republican moves resulted in the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Remember that story in the news?

Greenspan claimed that the banking industry could self-regulate itself.  He was obviously wrong. Greenspan’s mistake has cost the American economy hundreds of billions of dollars!

I kind of think that this is a big deal. Heck, I am guessing that even some conservative voters are at least a little concerned. Of course, I could be wrong because this group, especially in its contemporary "head space," never ceases to amaze me. I guess we will all see how concerned they are with the November election. If the de-regulating twins named Romney and Ryan win, then we will have our answer!

(As an aside, I am amused and also greatly concerned that the main proponents for deregulation, such as Greenspan and this Paul Ryan guy, are self-avowed disciples of Ayn Rand. But I digress!)

I cannot claim to be a big fan of Liberal PMs Chretien and Martin, but I am extremely happy that they withstood the calls from then Leader of the Opposition Stephen Harper to let the banks regulate themselves. All Canadians should be happy. Had Harper gotten his way, we would very likely be in a similar economic position as many Americans find themselves in today.

By the way, I am not putting Ritz and the XL Foods crisis in the same category as the UK’s Mad Cow crisis or Ontario’s Walkerton crisis. After all, no one has died. But this story is still far from over. Hopefully, Agriculture Minister Ritz has learned not to crack any more of those lame jokes.

Hopefully, the Canadian electorate will vote against any political party claiming that self-regulation is the way to go because industry knows best. Obviously, industry does not always know best.

To allow industry to self-regulate is to put our health, safety and economic security at risk.

I know one thing: even the tax cut lovin' crowd may want to tell their conservative politicians to save money elsewhere and not make cuts to the government meat inspectors and food regulators. Besides putting all Canadians at risk, it never really seems to save money in the long run anyway.