Liberal MP Wayne Easter just can’t seem to pass up a chance to throw a
barb at his favourite bureaucratic target, deputy agriculture minister
Samy Watson.
Last week during budget debate in the House of Commons, Easter lamented
the fact that the December budget from his own government did not
include specific farm aid funding.
But rather than point an accusing finger at finance minister Paul
Martin or agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief, he alluded to Watson.
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federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
Agriculture Canada has estimated that average realized net farm income
last year was $13,700.
He wondered if Watson would work for that salary.
“Sometimes in my worst moments, I think the salary of the deputy
minister should be pegged to the average realized net income on farms,”
said the Prince Edward Island MP and former farm leader.
“Maybe then this issue would be taken more seriously.”
It would mean that Watson would have to get by on less than one-tenth
of his current salary.
Depending on experience and responsibility, federal deputy ministers
earn between $145,000 and $246,300. Precise salaries for specific
deputy ministers are not made public.
Easter, a member of the prime minister’s task force on agriculture,
used his speech to make some recommendations to federal and provincial
agriculture ministers trying to negotiate a new long-term agriculture
policy.
The new policy should set specific targets on how many farmers the
sector needs or can accommodate, and what income they should expect to
make for their labour and investment.
“I believe we should even set income targets, maybe as a percentage of
the industrial wage,” he said.
“Let us see where the government’s commitment is really at in terms of
the farm community.
“We are taking our food production system for granted. We can afford to
support our farmers.”
While Easter said he put “a lot of faith and hope” in a promise from
Martin that Ottawa will pay its fair share of future farm support
costs, opposition MPs were not as trusting.
Canadian Alliance agriculture critic Howard Hilstrom said the
government is underfunding agriculture and taking too long to develop
the new farm policy.
“This movement beyond crisis management seems to be moving a lot like a
glacier,” he said.
“It is moving so slowly that it is grinding farmers down into rubble
below this glacier of inaction by the government.”
Bloc Québecois critic Suzanne Tremblay said government consultations on
the new policy are “bogus.”
“Everything has already been decided upon,” she said. “The government
even hired a new bureaucrat to oversee the implementation of the new
policy. It is just a sham.”
