A rural Conservative MP last week wondered if the provinces can be trusted to responsibly administer funds transferred from Ottawa if the federal government agrees to return to co-funding province-specific companion programs.
Larry Miller, a cattle producer from the Bruce-Grey area northwest of Toronto, based his question on the fact that the National Farmers Union has asked for an investigation into the operations of the Ontario agriculture department.
Miller raised the issue at a House of Commons agriculture committee meeting Nov. 28 after listening to Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Bob Friesen call on the government to reverse itself and fund companion programs.
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“If the federal government turned over a bunch of money to this provincial Liberal government, do you think they can be trusted with that federal money?” asked the MP.
Friesen said there must be accountability and monitoring whenever money is transferred from Ottawa into provincial programs.
He conceded that has not always been the case. A change in the funding formula several years ago resulted in a substantial increase in transfers to British Columbia, said the CFA president.
“The organizations there told us they never saw the money so we believe there has to be strict accountability if the federal government flows money into the provinces, that it be used for its intended purpose and that it helps to achieve national objectives,” Friesen said.
Although the CFA president said he had no evidence that Ontario is negligent, Miller took his comments as confirmation.
“So it’s probably a fair statement to say, really, that money didn’t appear to get out there so there could be some potential to the NFU’s accusation,” said the MP.
The NFU has asked the Ontario ombudsman to investigate the ministry’s goals and conduct.
The NFU said the Ontario ag department had been “led astray by a too-close relationship with agribusiness and, in search of short-term political goals, the ministry is mismanaging both our food system and our rural economy, leaving them weak and vulnerable.”
During the Commons committee meeting, NFU women’s president Colleen Ross did not blame rank-and-file staff or even the politicians for the problems at the ministry.
“It’s the senior bureaucrats in (the Ontario department) who have not delivered and that’s what we want,” she said. “We see the same thing at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and I can name names. They have a different vision. We need to separate corporation from government.”
Later, Miller jumped on the comment about naming names. Who are these people?
The only names Ross offered before the meeting ended were former deputy minister Samy Watson, now Canada’s representative to the World Bank in Washington, and former associate deputy minister Suzanne Vinet, now associate deputy health minister.
“I think he (Watson) was extremely damaging,” she said. “He left a trail of destruction. I know people who worked within (the department) were thrilled when he left.”
And she did not spare the Conservative government. She said both minister Gerry Ritz and former minister Chuck Strahl turned down invitations to attend NFU conventions.
