Just eight months out of office, Liberal MPs are calling on the Conservatives to scrap key elements of the farm support program that their party imposed over farmer objections while in government.
Leader Bill Graham and the Liberal rural caucus told a Sept. 25 Parliament Hill news conference that the government should base support payments on a cost-of-production formula rather than average historical returns now used in the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program.
They also said Canadian support levels should match support available to American farmers.
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And they urged Ottawa to get back into the business of co-funding provincial companion programs, something the previous Liberal government ended.
The Liberals estimate the added cost of their proposals at more than $1 billion annually on top of current record government payments.
Graham and agriculture critic Wayne Easter told reporters that the caucus is suggesting an about face because times have changed since they were in government. Primarily, World Trade Organization talks that were supposed to reduce subsidies and trade barriers last year have been suspended because of irreconcilable bargaining positions.
Easter acknowledged that many will question why the Liberals in power did not do what they now in opposition are suggesting the Conservatives do.
“The reality has been that domestic programs and policies we have adapted over the past few years were geared to meeting a successful WTO, reduced subsidies and increased market access,” said Easter. “All our programs were geared toward a successful WTO and when the WTO goes down in flames, it changes that reality so what we have now is a matter of urgency.”
He said the proposal to stand the CAIS rules on their head is an interim proposal, designed to get Canada through the period before an eventual WTO deal.
“The reality is that when the American farm bill comes into place, there will be virtually nothing done on achieving a WTO agreement or bringing it into effect until probably 2013,” Easter said. “That’s what this program is all about, dealing with the interim period until hopefully down the road we get a WTO success.”
The caucus about-turn will be submitted to the Liberal leadership and policy convention in Montreal at the end of November. There is no guarantee the new leader chosen at that convention will embrace the more aggressive and expensive agriculture strategy proposed by MPs, but Easter said if party delegates embrace it, the new leader will receive a powerful message.
Graham said farmers have been “suffering from a virtually constant deterioration in their income since 2000. We have a new government that is talking a great deal but producing no action.”
In the House of Commons several hours later, Easter accused the Conservatives of failing to live up to election campaign promises to support farmers. Farmers need money and want to preserve marketing boards such as the Canadian Wheat Board, but the Conservatives are betraying them on both issues, he said.
“Will the minister live up to his responsibilities and provide the needed cash assistance that farmers so dearly need?” Easter asked.
Agriculture minister Chuck Strahl said the Conservative government has provided farmers more help than it promised in the campaign and $2 billion more will be sent out before the end of the year.
“When it comes to getting advice on agriculture from Liberals, it is like getting fire fighting advice from a pyromaniac,” he quipped.
The Liberal caucus proposal also called for government investments in biofuel production while insisting it will fail if Canadian grain feedstock producers do not receive the same level of subsidies that American farmers receive.
MPs said the Conservatives should aggressively challenge trade-distorting practices of other countries and use WTO rules to restrict imports of dairy substitute ingredients.
The government should actively pursue new bilateral agricultural trade agreements and increase funding for research into new food products.
And the Liberals suggested Ottawa hold a “national farm summit” of farm group leaders to try to forge a common farm voice.
