$310 million cut | Agriculture Canada faced with 10 percent spending cut, but details sparse
The problem for farm leaders asked to analyze the agriculture sector impact of the March 29 federal budget is that they didn’t really know.
The budget announced a 10 percent, $310 million cut in the Agriculture Canada budget by 2014-15, one of the largest in government, but details about where the savings will come are vague.
Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz told reporters March 30 that the details will come later.
Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Ron Bonnett noted in an interview that the 10 percent cut at Agriculture Canada and its related agencies was at the high end of departmental cuts.
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“If these budget measures increase efficiency in program and service delivery, then we support them,” he said. “If the cuts result in hampering the success of farmers’ businesses and rural communities, then this will be an area of concern. At this point, it is difficult to really say.”
At Grain Growers of Canada, executive director Richard Phillips said while the cuts look large “we’re reserving judgment till we have more details about programs that will be cut.”
He even found reason to be optimistic that within the budget, there may actually be more money for agricultural research. “We’ll have to wait and see.”
For New Democratic Party agriculture critic Malcolm Allen, it is clear the budget cuts are bad news.
“I don’t know how this can be good for farmers, a 10 percent cut,” he said April 2.
“Even if it is mainly in the bureaucracy, in the so-called back rooms, those are the folks who process farm claims and deliver the benefits.”
The budget projects cuts of $56 million for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency over three years but then announces $51.2 million in additional food safety funding over two years to CFIA, Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada.
“I see that as a cut in CFIA and that is not good,” said Allen.
Farm organization representatives praised the government emphasis on expanding trade opportunities in the future, on committing $44 million to the Canadian Grain Commission over two years while it decides how to receive more of its revenue from fee-for-service charges and the promise to reduce the regulatory burden through more co-operation with the United States.
Several Grain Growers prairie members praised the budget for referencing the move to an open wheat and barley market on Aug. 1, 2012 as part of the government’s business strategy.
And GGC president Stephen Vandervalk said in an organization statement that while farmers understand the need for government spending restraint, politicians must keep some perspective on agriculture’s place in the economy.
“We appreciate money is tight federally but it is important to remember that agriculture didn’t cause this deficit and in fact we have been one of the consistent bright spots in the economy,” he said.
Agriculture and food create more than two million jobs in Canada and with tens of billions of dollars in exports, contribute significantly to the country’s balance of payments.
