FROM coast to coast, farmers have pleaded for help to remain on the farm, to ensure a vibrant food industry and protect rural society.
Instead, the federal government came up short on farm aid and now plans to develop an exit program for farmers who leave the land. This politically unpopular direction indicates politicians have already accepted that many farmers will be forced out.
Details are minimal, but it appears the program may help some farmers move to other types of production if they haven’t already diversified.
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The bigger emphasis is on moving marginal farmers into work outside of farming.
This triggers an emotional as well as a philosophical debate. Which farms are viable? Who deserves to stay on the land? What percentage of prairie farmers is Canada willing to sacrifice?
Canada has matured into an exporting nation that can survive with fewer farmers but what about other considerations? People, not machinery, keep a rural community alive.
Federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief has become more vocal on the direction he believes farm aid should take. At last month’s federal-provincial agricultural ministers meeting, he identified his goal was a “longer-range transitional approach to move this industry beyond crisis management.”
He added “there are realities out there that none of us like. But there are realities we all have to deal with, whether we are an individual producer or a government.”
Vanclief later explained in a CBC interview that farmers who have gross sales of only $65,000 or $75,000 should consider getting out of farming.
In a House of Commons agriculture committee meeting in late March, he said that one-third of Canada’s 270,000 farmers have gross sales of less than $10,000; the second of $10,000 to $100,000; and the last third are above $100,000.
Vanclief said smaller farmers cannot expect government support programs to give them a living income.
As his own assistant deputy agriculture minister told the committee, however, it isn’t smaller farmers who need the most help. The segment struggling the most to maintain a farm — and which may have few opportunities for off-farm work or lack job skills — is the middle third.
True, some farms are not viable. Their owners may appreciate transitional funds. A program may also help farmers who wish to retire.
But there are many more who would be viable if world grain and oilseed prices provided them with a decent return. They don’t want to move or train for another job. They want government help to retain the farms.
An exit program must not replace emphasis on a long-term, accessible and fair safety-net program.
