QUEBEC CITY – Laurent Pellerin, president of the powerful Quebec farmers’ union, has a modest request for politicians running for office.
He wants them to promise that whoever wins, agriculture will not be forgotten.
Before the Sept. 12 vote, leaders of l’Union des Producteurs Agricoles will meet Liberal leader Daniel Johnson and Parti QuŽbecois leader Jacques Parizeau to plead for maintenance of the status quo.
A top priority will be to restore and retain a $700 million agriculture budget for the province, which the Liberals already have started to cut.
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“We hope they will maintain the existing investment in all sorts of programs,” Pellerin said during an interview at his office in Longeueil, a South Shore suburb of Montreal.
It includes a demand that the next government continue to support the four pillars of agriculture policy in Quebec – supply management, an income insurance scheme, crop insurance and subsidized finance.
And it includes a plea that agriculture be kept on the “front page” in the politicians’ minds.
“Pork exports are worth more than hydro exports,” said hog-producer Pellerin. “We don’t just need money. We need encouragement and support.”
If the politicians are to be believed, farmers will get that much and more.
Liberal promises
The Liberals have promised the budget will be maintained if possible and the emphasis will be on further processing, competitiveness and export marketing.
Premier Johnson has also hinted that he would favor right-to-farm legislation to protect farmers from the political pressure of urbanites moving to the countryside and then being offended by the sights, sounds and smells of farming.
Pellerin said the Liberal promises sound good, as far as they go.
“Mr. Johnson has said he will try to maintain the budget and that is good news,” said the UPA president.
The PQ have been much more expansive in their promises, if a bit vague.
Parizeau is promising a return to a more interventionist, supportive government policy fueled by the spending of tax dollars once sent to Ottawa but soon to be retained in an independent Quebec.
