EDMONTON – Drought and the sad state of agriculture were prominent topics at the federal Liberal party’s national caucus meetings, said several Liberal Members of Parliament.
“It has been discussed at great length,” said Murray Calder, chair of the rural caucus, who made a presentation to the national caucus during their western Canadian tour and meeting.
“It will be very high on the priority list when the house resumes in September,” he said.
Federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief said drought came up at every caucus meeting and at the formal presentation he made to the national caucus.
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“I informed the caucus this is one of, if not the driest year on record, on a coast-to-coast basis,” said Vanclief during a break in the meeting.
But Vanclief said he wasn’t ready to make a pitch to cabinet for drought relief.
“I’m not about to do that at this time,” he said.
“We’re certainly monitoring this as we go along and stressing to producers that they should have bought crop insurance if they’ve not, and stressing to them to make full use of opportunities from the Net Income Stabilization Account, where they can make an interim withdrawal.
“I pointed out to colleagues, even though more farmers are buying crop insurance, I’m still very, very disappointed in the number of farmers that don’t buy crop insurance. But I also pointed out obviously they made a personal business decision to take the risk on their own.”
Wayne Easter, a member of the Prime Ministers Task Force on Sustainable Agriculture, said problems with crop insurance have been raised during the group’s meetings with farm groups across the country.
Many farmers feel crop insurance isn’t worth the cost, said Easter.
“I think clearly the reason a lot of producers are not buying crop insurance is it doesn’t meet their needs adequately,” said Easter, who will be travelling across Canada in September with the task force.
“It’s clear in my view that the current programs under the safety net won’t meet the total needs that this drought is causing. It’s going to have to be an issue that is discussed further in the fall,” said Easter.
Calder said that during his presentation, he told the prime minister to expect requests for drought aid in the fall.
“I told him I’ll be coming at you for disaster relief.”
