If Ottawa’s proposals for new farm safety net programs set the table
for this winter’s debate over the next generation of farm programs,
Dec. 4 is the day when dishes would have started to fly.
A number of provincial agriculture ministers, with the support of their
farm groups, travelled to Ottawa this week to tell agriculture minister
Lyle Vanclief that many of the glasses he has set out are half full at
best, even though they are grateful for the dinner invitation.
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Many will tell him to stop insisting that the effective deadlines for
introducing at least part of the new program design is April 1, 2003.
They say the project cannot be rushed.
“Overall, my farmers thought this was a good start,” Manitoba minister
Rosann Wowchuk said in an interview.
“But they need far more information. They really want us to do some
modelling. How is this going to work for Joe down the road compared to
John on the other side of the road who might have a different type of
operation? We have to take the time to get it right the first time.”
Ontario minister Helen Johns was to arrive laden with objections,
especially her opposition to a proposal by Vanclief that the money
distribution formula be changed to a demand-driven system that has
traditionally sent a larger percent of available funds to the Prairies.
The present funds allocation scheme, the Fredericton formula, favours
the larger and more stable farm economies.
“I am very concerned about the proposal to change the allocation
formula,” Johns said from her Toronto office. She was one of the first
provincial ministers to embrace the agricultural policy framework at a
federal-provincial ministers meeting in Halifax in June.
“At the time I signed, the federal minister said the Fredericton
formula would continue,” said the Ontario minister. “Ministers from
some other provinces were in the room and heard the promise.”
Vanclief’s office vehemently denies that any promise was made on the
distribution formula.
Last week, the federal minister insisted that his proposals are open to
negotiation.
He also said the new policy framework must start to be phased in April
1, 2003, otherwise the safety net package loses $500 million in funding.
In Edmonton, senior provincial agriculture official Ken Moholitny said
Alberta would come to the Dec. 4 meeting ready to negotiate and
encouraged by the federal proposals. He also raised the issue of
whether program details and agreements can be worked out by March 31.
In Regina, agriculture minister Clay Serby said that while some of
Vanclief’s ideas are encouraging, “the greatest single concern is that
the pool is just $1.1 billion and there will be no more. That simply is
not enough to fund enhanced crop insurance and super-NISA.”
Farm leaders also had concerns about federal proposals.
Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Bob Friesen said there is
“growing unrest” among CFA members “that these analyses are coming out
in dribs and drabs.
“Between now and Christmas, we will sit down as a federation and set
some bottom lines for these talks beyond which we will not go in
acceptance,” said Friesen.
Ted Menzies , president of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance,
cautioned that loading more policy goals onto NISA could make it
vulnerable to trade challenges.
