Earlier this week, our Chamber joined other PEI Chambers of Commerce, along with the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce, in writing a letter to the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, on her department’s decision to halt the shipping of PEI potatoes across the Canada-US border.
Our Federal Government can play a leading and active role in helping to educate our trading partners and advocating for one of our long-standing industries, rather than arbitrarily devastating an entire province based upon what a trading partner may or may not do. Moving forward, we are urging the government to work with the wider strength of our partners and officials to support the PEI potato industry in a Team Canada approach.
In this letter, we asked the Government of Canada to work with the provinces, our Canadian consulates, and other officials to ensure that a decision with such a detrimental impact on the PEI economy is based on science and fact. Additionally, we called for the Federal Government to immediately address this urgent matter and remedy this issue so that PEI potato farmers can resume exports to the United States.
To read the full letter, click here.