Saskatchewan farmers are facing a cash crisis, acknowledges the province’s finance minister, but the government doesn’t plan to help with immediate cash.
Eric Cline released his mid-year financial report last week. He said the province took $65 million out of Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority reserves to pay a higher-than-expected forest fire bill.
But Cline said there isn’t enough money available to provide the kind of cash injection the farm economy needs.
“The minister of agriculture made it quite clear we want to work with the federal government to have a long-term program that is sustainable,” Cline told reporters. “What we are not willing to do … is deal with the immediate cash shortfall that farmers will have this year.”
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Cline said Ottawa has to take responsibility, because that government eliminated the Crow rail freight subsidy for grain and about $300 million from the economy while other countries continue to subsidize their farmers.
“No province can compete with the treasuries of the European Community or the United States,” he said, echoing statements by premier Roy Romanow and agriculture minister Eric Upshall.
Earlier in the week, the Liberal opposition called on the province to do its share.
“We need a third line of defence that’s available immediately,” said agriculture critic Gerard Aldridge. “We need some cash for farmers right now. They have too many bills that are coming due for payment.”
Aldridge said the Romanow administration tore up Gross Revenue Insurance Plan contracts and “pulled $188 million right out of farmers’ pockets. It’s time that he put something back.”
The Liberals have begun collecting signatures on petitions calling for immediate aid from both the provincial and federal governments.
The Saskatchewan Party took a similar tack, writing an open letter to prime minister Jean ChrŽtien asking for emergency assistance.
Agriculture critic Bob Bjornerud said the people of Saskatchewan need to send a direct message to ChrŽtien because the government has failed miserably.
But Romanow said he has spoken to the prime minister, and Upshall has conveyed Saskatchewan’s position to his federal counterpart Lyle Vanclief.
“The case is clearly made, from Saskatchewan’s point of view, to Ottawa,” the premier said. “It is now a question of them making an appropriate decision in as timely a fashion as possible.”
Romanow dismissed the Liberals’ call for provincial money, saying their mathematics stretch credibility.
“The reality is that Saskatchewan is not going to fight the United States of America in a battle of the public purses. No farmer expects that.”
