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Supply management is sold to Canadians as a promise: stable farms, reliable supply and predictable prices. But stability should never mean protection from scrutiny. Canadians paying for groceries deserve to know whose interests the rules actually serve.

CHARLEBOIS: Supply management’s chicken import racket? Back to video

Canada’s chicken import quotas are a good place to start.

Ottawa permits a limited quantity of foreign chicken to enter Canada at low or no import duty. These allowances are called tariff-rate quotas, or TRQs. Think of them as admission passes to a protected market. Ottawa decides which eligible businesses receive them.

In 2026, Canada provides approximately 121.6 million kilograms of chicken import access through its WTO, CUSMA and CPTPP commitments. These quantities are expressed in eviscerated equivalents, a standardized measure rather than simply the weight of products crossing the border.

Receiving an allocation does not mean receiving chicken. It means receiving permission to import chicken at the lower tariff. That distinction matters because the permission itself can have considerable commercial value.

Allocation holders can request government approval to transfer access to another eligible business. Where money changes hands, the buyer pays for permission before paying for the........

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