During the Red River flood last summer, residents of Eastern Canada dug into their pockets to send hundreds of thousands of dollars west to help the victims try to rebuild their lives.
In the winter of 1998, some of that money is flowing back to its source.
Western Canadian farmers and farm businesses have been donating thousands of dollars, plus equipment, to help the thousands of farmers in Quebec, Ontario and the Maritimes who lost power for days, and in many cases weeks.
“The response from the West has been fairly generous,” Sally Rutherford, of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture said Jan. 26 from Ottawa. “Especially in Manitoba, people there remember the help they received during the flood.”
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At the annual meeting of the Keystone Agricultural Producers, a collection was taken up for the cause. The farm lobby group also co-ordinated an effort to send generators from Manitoba east.
At the annual Dairy Farmers of Canada policy conference in Vancouver, the names and addresses for relief funds in Ontario and Quebec were published and members were asked to consider helping.
The corporate sector also was mobilizing.
Cargill Ltd. and fertilizer manufacturer Saskferco Products Inc. said they would donate more than $15,000 to the cause and match personal donations from employees. Other companies made a similar offer. But it was the personal donations that seemed to touch the strongest chord.
At the dairy meeting, Ontario leader John Core and Quebec leader Claude Rivard thanked farmers from across Canada who had helped out.
And at the CFA, which was making sure its members across Canada had the direct donation and aid telephone numbers, Rutherford said staff had fielded calls, not just from organizations but also from individuals.
“We had calls from farmers in the West saying they wanted to come down to do what they could,” she said.
