Paul Martin will have to do things differently if he wants to satisfy Canadian farmers.
The president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture last week said the new prime minister has to give his agriculture minister more flexibility to respond to producer needs.
Bob Friesen told the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan that the federal cabinet and the bureaucracy also have to think about how their actions impact agriculture.
“CFA members have told me that the government hasn’t listened to farmers, that the commitment we got for a partnership never happened, that it fell apart terribly and never got to the right point,” Friesen said in an interview at the APAS annual meeting held here Dec. 4-5.
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“It’s important that the prime minister tells the ag minister that he needs to get the relationship between the industry and the government back to where it should be.”
Friesen said that means Ottawa needs to listen to farmers before acting.
In particular, he wants the agriculture minister to be able to implement what farmers want. He said he understands cabinet has to decide how much money is spent on agriculture, and that farmers won’t always get as much as they want.
“But what frustrates me is that even inside the amount of money that there has been a mentality in the past that we (Ottawa) will dictate to farmers what it is that they should get in the way of, say, program components or micro policy,” Friesen said.
He cites BSE aid as an example. He said every time farmers suggested changes to the program, they were told they would have to go back to cabinet.
“The cabinet or the bureaucracy should not restrict the agricultural minister to where he cannot sit down with farmers and say ‘I’ve got $200 million, tell me how we can best make it work.’ “
The bureaucracy has for too long imposed its policy ideas while ignoring what farmers are saying, Friesen said.
APAS president Terry Hildebrandt echoed those comments, saying the minister, not the bureaucracy, must have the control.
Friesen said farm organizations have to hold Martin to his word that he is committed to working with the industry and that he believes in doing things with farmers, not to or for them.
He said if Martin makes it clear that this is the new attitude, farm organizations will have some leverage if things don’t change.
He added that CFA is willing to work with whomever Martin appoints as agriculture minister, as long as that person listens.
