Wayne Bacon isn’t ready to throw in the towel.
But the Kinistino, Sask., farmer says a group of Saskatchewan farmers fighting the provincial government in court may have taken a knockout blow last week.
The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed the group’s appeal of last year’s decision by a lower court that threw out their lawsuit over changes to the province’s Gross Revenue Insurance Plan.
Bacon, spokesperson for the farmers, said he doesn’t want to give up, but conceded that last week’s decision will make it difficult to press the case further.
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“I don’t know what we’ll do,” he said. “I suspect we’ll still be heading to the Supreme Court, but the problem we’re going to run into is that when it’s a unanimous decision, we might have a hard time to get an appeal heard.”
The 380 farmers say the province breached legally binding contracts with producers when it unilaterally changed GRIP in 1992, reducing the benefits payable to farmers. The government also passed legislation denying farmers the right to sue or collect damages.
Last July, the courts ruled that while the provincial government may have breached the GRIP contracts, it was acting in the public interest.
The farmers appealed, but in a decision handed down in Regina May 14, the three-member panel of judges found in the province’s favor.
“There is no basis to challenge the validity of the legislation which was used to impose the GRIP 92 contract and to extinguish the right to challenge its application,” the judges wrote in a 20-page decision.
The court effectively said the legislature can do what it wants and pass whatever laws it wants, as long as those laws are not clearly illegal. If citizens don’t like the results, they can vote the government out of office.
Bacon said the group’s executive committee will soon meet with its lawyer to consider what to do. If the decision is made to launch an appeal to the Supreme Court, the next step will be to ask the members for more money.
“That will ultimately decide what we do,” he said. “But if the members feel the same as we do, they’ll continue to fund the process.”
Bacon said the decision sends a dangerous message to all residents of the province, not just farmers.
“Basically what it means is that if you sign a contract with the government, whether you’re a farmer or any individual, it’s a one-sided contract,” he said. “We must live up to it but the government can basically decide to get out of it.”
Agriculture minister Eric Upshall said he couldn’t comment in detail on the decision because it could still be appealed.
“But in general terms, governments have to have the ability to govern,” he said. “While it’s not pleasant, this decision allows that principle to continue.”
