Eric Jones is enthused about organizing farmers with disabilities on a national
basis.
As an Alberta Agriculture safety specialist, he tries to ensure farm accidents don’t happen. But as a director of the Canadian Coalition for Agricultural Safety and Rural Health, he has accepted the task of building links with already-injured farmers.
The coalition is helping administer a fund of $4 million from the federal government to be used over the next three years for farm safety projects. Jones met with the board of the Saskatchewan Farmers with Disabilities after their recent conference to help them put together a grant application.
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Murray Bedel, president of the farmers’ group, said the national association has been “in limbo” since the Canadian Paraplegic Association stopped funding it.
“With all the cutbacks … we have no more financing,” said the Balcarres, Sask. farmer.
The application is asking for $10,000 to pull together a national committee representing farmers with disabilities for a Jan. 24 meeting in Saskatoon. The group could represent 3,000 people in Canadian farming communities, estimated Jones.
Increase motivation
The committee will also discuss whether to hold a national conference. The last Canadian farmers with disabilities conference was held six years ago. Bedel said it is important to hold one regularly because it gets provincial organizations motivated.
Jones hopes to get the farmers listed in a national registry and to have their committee as part of the coalition, rather than set up as a separate group. The plan is to have the farmers with disabilities meet again as part of the Canadian coalition’s annual conference set for Quebec City in October 1997.
