OTTAWA — There is a sense of openness and goodwill on Parliament Hill with the new crop of MPs, says a National Farmers Union official who recently paid her first post-election lobbying visit.
“They are new and they want to do something,” NFU vice-president Carol Masse of Manitoba said in a March 18 interview. “They are keen to listen to ideas and they seem to want to do some good when they are here.”
She said it was a different attitude from her last lobbying visit when the Conservatives were long-entrenched and opposed to the NFU, and the opposition parties were set in their ways.
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“I didn’t feel then that there was much listening going on,” she said. “Positions seemed to be set.”
But for all the openness she found, Masse still had a tough message for the new Liberal government.
It should shake up the Agriculture Canada bureaucracy to reduce the influence of senior bureaucrats who helped form Conservative policies and appear to be offering the same kind of conservative advice to the Liberals, she said.
The NFU leader said influential members of the bureaucracy appear to play down the continuing farm crisis and seem bent on promoting “competitiveness” at the expense of the support programs Canadian farmers have helped develop over the years.
“I think there is a reality gap in there, a fair distance from the field to the ivory tower,” said Masse. “I think there should be a shakeup. If you want to have a new direction, you need new directors.”
Along with British Columbia district director Frank Breault from Dawson Creek, Masse spent several days in Ottawa lobbying MPs and officials on issues ranging from farm finance to supply management.
She said she told the government the NFU strongly supports the re-introduction of interest-free cash advances. She also lobbied for retention of a strong supply management system and Canadian Wheat Board.
Masse said she came away with the idea that there is strong political support for the wheat board. However, “supply management might be a tougher fight.”
She said the Liberal government, along with opposition MPs, seem genuinely interested in co-operating and learning. It was a change from the past decade when NFU lobbyists rarely received a sympathetic hearing on Parliament Hill, except from the New Democratic Party.
This time, Masse said Liberals, Reform and Bloc QuŽbecois MPs all gave her a good hearing.
