Every year Agriculture Canada joins all other federal government departments in preparing for Parliament a performance report meant to tell MPs how the department is doing.
Not surprisingly, since it is self-grading, Parliament is being told this year that Agriculture Canada has been doing just fine.
Brand new safety nets “designed based on ideas put forward by producers” are protecting producers better from market instability. Billions of dollars are flowing to farmers.
“Canadian farm families are the backbone of this great country, driving our jobs, exports and economic growth and sustaining us with healthy, wholesome and diverse food for our tables,” agriculture minister Gerry Ritz wrote in the performance report.
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No matter which goal the department wrote about, whether business risk management, food safety, international marketing or environmental stewardship, it declared the goal met and the programming a success.
In the business risk management section, for example, the report notes that spending reached $2.23 billion in the last fiscal year, although the initial budget was $1.52 billion. It said the spending “enhanced producers’ capacity to manage risk and increased sector viability and profitability.
“Through its work, the department strives to help the sector maximize its long-term profitability and competitiveness while respecting the environment,” department officials wrote in the section designed to explain why the department exists and what it does.
The report for the fiscal year 2007-08 notes that the department overshot its planned spending by almost 25 percent, or close to $700 million. The final year’s spending came to $3.438 billion.
During the year, the departmental workforce increased by the equivalent of 138 new positions to a full-time equivalent staff of 6,702.
Although Ritz lately has been signaling that the Conservative government is stepping back for now from attempts to end the Canadian Wheat Board barley marketing monopoly, the minister used his introduction to the report to reiterate that it remains a long-term goal.
“We pressed hard for marketing freedom for western grain producers by introducing Bill C-46, amendments to the CWB Act that would clear the way for barley marketing freedom and introduce a requirement respecting commercial dispute resolution,” he wrote. “We will continue to fight for marketing choice as the majority of farmers have clearly indicated their desire to have marketing freedom.”
But since CWB director elections late last year returned four of five as single desk supporters, Ritz has indicated the vote showed a majority support the single desk.
