Just two hours before the Saskatchewan government passed this year’s budget, about 50 farmers appeared on the steps of the legislature to ask that the document be torn up.
Terry Hildebrandt, president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, which organized the gathering, said the budget is unfair to rural Saskatchewan and agriculture in particular.
“The lack of strategy that this government has exhibited relative to agriculture is appalling,” he said.
He listed the farm fee and tax hikes contained in the March 31 budget, and expressed concern about the burden of education tax on farmland. Hildebrandt said the government should be investing in and strengthening agriculture to build the economy.
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“This budget is a clear indication that this government will continue to milk the cow that it refuses to feed.”
Hildebrandt and others met with agriculture minister Mark Wartman before the peaceful protest.
The minister said he understands that farmers want more investment in agriculture but the government has to be fiscally responsible across all sectors.
Wartman reminded producers the government came up with an extra $130 million for agriculture last year due to BSE and that means others will have to hold the line.
“We recognize that part of our keeping wages down and the need to do that is based on the fact that we have expended significant dollars for support for agriculture,” he told reporters, referring to a wage mandate for public servants of no increase this year and one percent in each of the following two years.
Hildebrandt said APAS has never been a protest group, but it may have to resort to more visible tactics to make its point with government.
“A tax revolt, with residents of rural Saskatchewan refusing to bear the brunt of education costs in the province, might be the key to make the government pay attention,” he said.
Meanwhile, the government survived an April 8 no-confidence motion made by the Saskatchewan Party in response to the budget. Because deputy premier and former agriculture minister Clay Serby is absent while fighting cancer, the actual vote was tied, leaving speaker Myron Kowalsky to break the tie.
Afterward, the government lost a motion to move budget estimates into smaller committees for discussion, where it has a majority. The opposition voted to keep the estimates in the committee of finance, where it has the majority and the speaker must maintain the status quo.
The NDP said the opposition is taking advantage of Serby’s illness and practising “crass politics.” Opposition leader Brad Wall said the Saskatchewan Party will not use Serby’s absence to defeat the government in the committee.
