WINNIPEG (Staff) – It’s a brave new world for number crunchers and policy analysts at Agriculture Canada.
When the budget came down in February, the people who give advice to the minister and top bureaucrats in the department had to convince the bosses that their jobs were worth saving.
Ken Ash, director general of a new directorate comprising the data information system managers, economics and analysts, said the group is working on a plan that will see them work as a private or semi-independent business by April of 1996.
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“It’s scary, it’s fun … it’s a big, big change,” Ash said. “It’s 90 people who have been bureaucrats for, on average, 15 years, and we’re looking at the possibility of … not just satisfying one customer, but satisfying many customers.”
Ash said the group believes there’s a lot of demand for the type of information they have, adding that the group’s collective resume is impressive.
- On average, members have more than 15 years experience in agriculture and economics. More than a quarter have PhDs, and many have masters degrees.
- Some of them have worked abroad. Members are fluent in eight languages, including Spanish and Mandarin. Some specialize in foreign agricultural analysis.
- The group can forecast the effect a program will have on Canadian farmers through an extensive database of production and financial information. Every two years, it has surveyed farmers about finance.
- The group knows its way around government departments, like Statistics Canada and Revenue Canada.
But the potential cost of the group’s services makes Jack Wilkinson nervous.
The president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture said he relies on the agriculture department to bring economic analysis and forecasting to the table when they work on issues together.
Until now, that information has been provided free.
“How are (farm groups) going to have the analytical information that is required to make a host of decisions if they have to pay substantive amounts of money for it?” he said.
Costly information
Ash said he doesn’t yet know what his group will charge, but it won’t likely be cheap.
This year, the group has a budget of $11 million. Ash said it spends more than half of it on getting data, the rest on making the information easier to understand.
He said the federal government would likely remain a customer, but the group could also sell information to provincial governments, universities and private companies.
Even farmers might be customers. Ash said farmers might be interesting in looking at “benchmark farms”: typical, successful operations against which other farms can be measured.
