Prairie farmers have often said Ottawa doesn’t understand the extent of the farm crisis.
They will have a chance to make their point face-to-face with politicians when the House of Commons agriculture committee comes west next month.
The committee will hold public meetings in three communities in each prairie province, likely the week of Dec. 6, committee chair John Harvard said Nov. 19.
In Regina a day earlier, agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief told Saskatchewan Wheat Pool delegates he had asked the committee to travel west, but couldn’t order them to do so.
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Harvard, a Winnipeg Liberal MP, said the committee would formalize plans at a Nov. 23 meeting, but as far as he is concerned it will meet with farmers before Christmas.
“I can’t imagine what would be an obstacle,” Harvard said. “I think I know my committee pretty well. We want to hear them.”
He said he would like to hold at least one meeting in the Saskatchewan-Manitoba corner hit hard by spring flooding.
The committee wants to hear mainly from individual farmers, he added, as most farm groups make formal presentations in Ottawa throughout the year.
“Ever since the debate around AIDA has occurred, we in the government have been naturally concerned about some farmers saying we don’t care,” Harvard said. “I want to remove any doubt about our commitment to the farm community.”
An aide to vice-chair Howard Hilstrom, a Reform MP, wondered why the government committee members are so keen to go west when they defeated earlier motions from Reform and Conservative members calling for a similar trip.
“We want the witnesses to be farmers and we’ll be demanding that we hear from farmers and not the lobby groups,” Cam Dahl said Nov. 22.
He also said Vanclief may have asked Harvard about the trip, but he did not ask the committee. Hilstrom found out about the trip Monday morning.
