Was it really so long ago when members of the House of Commons agriculture committee would brag that they were part of the least-partisan committee on Parliament Hill?
The collection of MPs that sit on the committee in this session would make no such claim. Worthy and hardworking as they are individually, they are a toxic mix when stirred together.
Relations between chair Larry Miller and veteran Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter are frosty at best and sometimes downright menacing. That animosity was on display again late last week when a long-anticipated committee report on young farmer issues became bogged down in minority reports from all four parties on the committee .
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The drawn out in-camera meetings to write the report were reportedly bitter and heated and that came through in the minority reports.
New Democrat and Bloc Québecois reports stuck to policy recommendations. Conservatives and Liberals used their dissents to diss the other side – Liberals blaming Conservatives for failing farmers with “dismal” support levels compared to other countries and Conservatives calling Liberal positions irresponsible and their support for a Canadian Wheat Board monopoly “punitive.”
While many of their agreed-upon recommendations offer interesting ideas – more food industry education in schools, changes to some financial programs, support for buy local, more research funding and a review of key income support programs – the overall tone seems bitter, divisive and partisan.
By deciding to enter a business that is deeply influenced by politics and policy decisions, young farmers reading the report might wonder about the wisdom of their choice of industry given the toxic nature of the politics that influence it.
But there also was a hint last week that divisions in politics about young farm policies may extend beyond Liberal-Conservative rivalries. There seemed to be some light between two government ministers.
After a two-day National Future Farmers Network meeting, agriculture minister Gerry Ritz said he was impressed by the attitude of the invited young farmers when he spoke at a luncheon during the conference.
“These young people are ready to take over the reins,” the minister told the House of Commons agriculture committee Nov. 18. “They’re ready to take over the farm and move forward. They want less government, they want to be sure that regulations help them forward, don’t restrict them.”
Jean-Pierre Blackburn, veterans affairs minister and minister of state for agriculture, hosted the meeting and appeared to have emerged with a different view of the young farmer view of the role of government.
Did they say they wanted less government? Blackburn was asked in an interview.
“They want to be sure our programs are there when something unexpected happens to them in their agriculture sector,” he said.
So rather than less government, they want to be sure government is there if they need help?
“Yes, that’s what I heard,” he said. Maybe the ministers were answering different questions.
