Let's be honest, the antibiotics and hormones are just an excuse to keep the foreign competition out, and keep prices high in the process.
If the government really cared about protecting consumers, they would not care about the country of origin. They would have import controls that ensure imported foreign milk follows the Canadian standards you mentioned. Instead, they simply slap an incredibly high average duty of 218.5% on any dairy product coming from abroad, no matter its characteristics, effectively blocking any import of dairy.
There is high-quality milk made in the U.S. too. But Canada prefers to protect Canadian oligopolies and keep competitors out. And this way, consumers keep paying higher prices for the same product. Why not let consumers decide what they want to purchase?
It's sadly more complicated than that. If we become reliant on US milk, American attempts to force us to lower our standards will have so much more leverage that they will probably suceed.
So sadly for us to keep this standard we probably have to keep a similar system to the one we have right now.
Some of it is intentionally protectionist policies. As a country Canada can’t let the US dictate everything. If US milk becomes a necessity in Canada then that is one more way the US can exercise leverage over Canada. Given the last few years under Trump, I think some policies that insulate Canada from the nonsensical policies of an insane US president are quite responsible.
If the government really cared about protecting consumers, they would not care about the country of origin. They would have import controls that ensure imported foreign milk follows the Canadian standards you mentioned. Instead, they simply slap an incredibly high average duty of 218.5% on any dairy product coming from abroad, no matter its characteristics, effectively blocking any import of dairy.
There is high-quality milk made in the U.S. too. But Canada prefers to protect Canadian oligopolies and keep competitors out. And this way, consumers keep paying higher prices for the same product. Why not let consumers decide what they want to purchase?