Jerry Sopatyk left his farm on April 21 to spend the day sitting in a hotel meeting room in Saskatoon.
Unhappy with the provincial government’s decision to close 22 agricultural extension offices across the province, Sopatyk joined 140 other growers, agribusiness representatives and community leaders at an emergency meeting on the subject.
For several hours, speakers talked about the value of extension agrologists in helping farmers and communities survive. And they heard senior government officials defend the decision, insisting that the level of service farmers will receive under the new arrangements will be as good.
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But when the meeting was over, Sopatyk was as unhappy as he had been when he arrived.
“I didn’t get any satisfaction,” he said.
The provincial officials failed to convince him that farmers will be as well served by the new system of a call centre and nine regional offices as they were by the 31 rural service centres that saw extension agrologists working in small towns.
“They knew your situation, they knew what resources you had available, they knew your areas, they provided that personal contact,” he said.
“The ag rep is the only form of government that everybody trusts. That’s the bottom line.”
The meeting was organized by a trio of producer clubs in response to the decision announced in the March 31 provincial budget to close 22 rural service centres and lay off 119 employees as of April 30.
The government says the changes will save about $2 million, a number that didn’t impress many of those attending last week’s meeting.
Tim Korol, a producer from near Colonsay, Sask., and one of the organizers of the meeting, said $2 million is an insignificant number in terms of government spending, adding that it’s dwarfed by the financial benefits generated by the local agrologists.
The meeting heard presentations from an array of agricultural business development and community groups praising the work done by extension agrologists, whether that be answering questions about a crop disease or insect infestation, organizing a field day, providing advice on an agribusiness proposal, helping people deal with farm-related stress issues or working with a 4-H club.
“They work tirelessly for rural people,” said Mark Knutilla of the Long Lake Rural Economic Development Agency.
Helgi Helgason, president of Milligan Bio-tech of Foam Lake, said the local extension agrologist was “absolutely invaluable” in getting the company up and running.
Ron Nowoselski of the Meacham Hills Forage Club said the local agrologist played a key role in getting the club set up and expressed fear about the future of its research projects after the agrologist is gone.
Wilson Acton, president of the Agricultural Students Association at the University of Saskatchewan, said government agrologists provide a vital service by acting as an impartial, objective source of information.
“If you sever this information link, that sends a message that they’re not behind agriculture in this province, and that frightens me,” Acton said.
One issue raised was that the decision to eliminate the extension agrologists came with no warning.
Deputy minister of agriculture Doug Matthies said that secrecy reflected the typical budget process. But he added that more than 70 percent of farmer contact with extension agrologists came through phone, fax, e-mail or the internet, and similar changes had been implemented in other provinces in recent years.
