OTTAWA – Parliament resumes this week, leading to an expected 1997 election, and it looks like the political battle will be fierce.
Already, on the agricultural front, political insults are flying.
Reform party agriculture critic Elwin Hermanson said he hopes agriculture minister Ralph Goodale uses the new session to finally climb off the fence on a number of issues.
Instead of more studies and consultations, the Saskatchewan Reformer wants Canadian Wheat Board reform, a decision on a national farm safety net program and other decisive actions. He said Reform MPs will increase their pressure on Goodale to force the government to make some changes, including a move to elect the wheat board commissioners from among farmers.
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“If you want to see Ralph Goodale die of thirst, put two glasses of water in front of him,” said Hermanson.
Handled many issues
Goodale has a different view on that issue. He has presided over the demise of the Crow Benefit, the slashing of various programs and creation of multi-million-dollar transition funds.
“So far, the agriculture debate in Parliament has been largely non-partisan and in fact, I have been surprised how little attention Reform and the Bloc (QuŽbecois) paid to agricultural issues,” he said in a Feb. 16 interview from Regina.
“If they choose to put more emphasis on agriculture in the new session, I would welcome that and I hope it is constructive. Of course, if they just want to get partisan, I’ll deal with that too.”
The agriculture minister said issues he expects to arise during the new parliamentary session include:
- Comprehensive cash advance legislation to put into law the interest-free program in place under regulation since 1994, as well as to make uniform across the country the rules of cash advance programs. Now, three different cash advance programs exist in law for the Prairies, the rest of Canada and co-ops.
nLegislation may be introduced to broaden the mandate of the Farm Credit Corporation.
- Transport minister David Anderson, in close consultation with Goodale, will be re-introducing and trying to shepherd through the Commons a bill on railway deregulation that in the last session of Parliament raised the ire of prairie commodity shippers because they found it too pro-railways.
Hermanson said Reform will be demanding the re-introduced bill be more shipper-friendly.
- The federal government may finally be able to resolve the federal-provincial dispute over what kind of farm income safety net should replace the complicated mix of programs existing now.
And if the American challenge to protective Canadian supply management tariffs is successful this spring, Ottawa will have to deal with severe changes to the dairy, poultry and egg industries.
“There is a lot of work to be done still,” said Goodale. “There are a lot of files still to be closed.”
