THUNDER BAY, Ont. – The Agriculture Canada bureaucracy is increasingly out of touch with the needs of the farm community it is supposed to serve, farm leaders complained last week.
To listen to Canadian Federation of Agriculture board members who gathered here July 24-25 for their annual summer meeting, the department is guilty of a multitude of sins, from poor focus and perverse policy decisions to arrogance.
“It is a sad state of affairs, really,” CFA president Jack Wilkinson said as the harsh assessments rolled across the table.
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There were complaints about departmental priorities.
“They are completely focused on exports and are missing many of the other emerging issues,” said CFA executive director Sally Rutherford.
She said food safety, hormone use, new biotechnology products and processes, child care, water quality, endangered species rules and a host of other “non-traditional” issues are becoming the increasing focus of farm lobby work.
“Yet on many of those issues, we seem to be out there on our own,” she said. “To this point, Agriculture Canada has been reluctant to get involved. It is not providing leadership.”
There were complaints about arrogant bureaucrats more interested in managing files than in solving problems.
And there were complaints about cost recovery.
Even as the government promotes exports, it applies user fees and cost recovery that put Canadian farmers at a disadvantage, several CFA members said.
Neil Van Ryssel, from Dairy Farmers of Canada, said tests required for cattle exports to the United States can cost up to $300 per animal.
“That’s an $80 million market and it could just dry up.”
Fees add up
Gordon Pugh, from Prairie Pools Inc., said the cumulative effect of user fees charged on grain movement, including inspection and grading fees, marine fees and others, “could amount to $4-$5 a tonne to the government for grain produced on the Prairies.”
Later, agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief told the meeting that Agriculture Canada is preparing a study on the cumulative impact of user fees on the farm and food industry. It will be ready this autumn.
And the government is promising to try to keep cost recovery increases to a minimum by cutting costs rather than passing them on.
