OTTAWA — A parliamentary committee has ambitious plans to develop a blueprint for a futuristic Canadian agricultural policy.
A committee of senators and MPs has launched a seven-month study that some members expect will become a forum for the debate over the role of government support in the agriculture of the future.
They will hold hearings in Ottawa and across the country, asking farm and agri-business lobbyists and individual farmers what policy-makers should do to help the Canadian food industry prosper into the next century.
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At the urging of Reform Party MPs, committee members also will meet small groups of farmers at “kitchen table meetings” to hear the voices of farmers not involved in organized groups.
They are tentatively scheduled to travel through Western Canada Nov. 4-11.
Commons committee chair Bob Speller from Ontario said it is time to move away from reactive farm policy making and to do some strategic planning.
“Farmers recognize that times are changing and policies have to change,” he said when announcing the study.
Time is appropriate
Co-chair Sen. Dan Hays from Alberta said the advent of new trade deals, policies and markets make it an appropriate time to take a look at long-term plans.
“I am looking forward to an intensive period of hard work,” he said.
He urged Canadians to keep an open mind about how much the committee can accomplish.
Although in the past some members of the Commons agriculture committee have been critical of the Agriculture Canada bureaucracy, Speller said the politicians’ study is not meant as a comment on the department’s performance.
“Agriculture Canada has a role to play but we have a role too, to be something of a check on them,” he said.
The committee investigation, slated to be finished at the end of March unless the timetable is extended, has an open-ended list of topics and little focus so far.
Witnesses will be invited to comment on topics as varied as the impact of trade deals, rural development, sustainable farming, farm safety, financing, safety nets, transportation, research and training.
Listen to farmers
Speller insisted there are no preconceived priorities. “We want to hear from farmers.”
But some of the members already have drawn their own conclusions about what is needed.
Reform MP Leon Benoit said his priority, and what he expects to hear from farmers, is that government is too big and intrusive. “Farmers have told me that that is the number one priority, to have government reduce the number of hurdles they have to jump over.”
Liberal MP Wayne Easter said he believes any agriculture policy for the future must maintain, and perhaps strengthen, existing Canadian marketing institutions. There must be a role for government intervention in free markets.
Bloc QuŽbecois agriculture critic Jean-Paul Marchand said he goes into the study convinced Quebec farmers have different needs for the future. The seven-month investigation will show that Quebec farmers would be better off in a separate Quebec with a distinct food policy.
“I agree with Mr. Benoit that we have to reduce the role of government.
“In fact, we are trying to eliminate one entire government from interfering in agriculture in Quebec.”
The committee said it has not yet figured out how much the study will cost. It will involve coast-to-coast travel, with a side trip to Washington.
It began its work by agreeing to spend up to $15,750 on a contract for Sarah Trant, until this week a contract employee in Speller’s Parliament Hill office and wife of former senior assistant deputy agriculture minister Gerry Trant.
