Canada’s agriculture ministers are more interested in keeping on friendly terms with their finance ministers than in fighting for more farm safety net funding, the leader of Canada’s largest farm lobby complained last week.
Many lack “the guts” to fight within government for more help for farmers.
“Instead of trying to deny the need, ministers should be going to bat for us with finance ministers,” Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Jack Wilkinson said in a July 6 interview. “I think this is driven by no one having the guts to look at what has been really happening to farm incomes.”
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He warned that a report on safety nets to be delivered to federal and provincial agriculture ministers next week does not properly reflect the fears most farmers feel that existing support programs are inadequate.
He said the government officials who wrote the report and who will deliver it seem to believe action can wait.
Yet there was “near panic” in Ottawa and some provincial capitals this spring when drought was a possibility, said Wilkinson. They knew that existing programs would not be adequate if a real income downturn occurred.
“In essence, that report waters down the seriousness of the issue,” said Wilkinson, who sat on the committee. “It is clear safety nets need more money but the government seems more interested in interpreting the numbers to say things are not as bad as they really are.”
When ministers discuss safety nets next week during their annual summer meeting, Wilkinson predicted they will decide to maintain the existing system for another “transition” year.
Most farmers on the safety nets advisory committee recommended that decisions be made to get more money into the system.
“It’s frustrating because the need is there and yet there are some politicians who don’t want to see more focus on safety nets and there are some bureaucrats in Ottawa who don’t want to see more of a push for safety nets,” he said.
In June, once it became clear to CFA members that the report to ministers will not be as tough as many of the farmer members had wanted, Wilkinson wrote to federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief with what was in essence a dissenting report.
“Overall, the tone of the report does not reflect the serious nature of the situation as farmers see it,” he wrote.
The CFA president, writing on behalf of CFA provincial members, Prairie Pools Inc. and the Canadian Pork Council, urged Vanclief to let provincial ministers know they should be thinking of enriched support.
“Given the present forecasts for market returns, safety net programming will require additional funds,” he wrote.
Ottawa should increase its funding for the Net Income Stabilization Account program by one-third, provinces which lack disaster programs should create them, and support programs in all the provinces should meet national standards.
Wilkinson said bureaucrats on the safety net review committee decided to “water down” the proposals because the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association is hostile to safety nets.
“That was one group out of 33 at the table but it seemed to fit the government agenda to play up the lack of unanimity,” he said.
Wilkinson complained the committee had time for just three meetings. The first was introductory, the second involved some issues debate “and by the third one, they were starting to write the draft report.”
