Farmers aren’t alone in wanting higher commodity prices, an end to export subsidies and lower input costs and taxes.
The businesses that serve agriculture say they’re suffering too and have called on governments to do something to assist the farm economy.
A survey released last week by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business showed that 60 percent of agri-business members across the Prairies said the farm income problems had a major impact on their operations in 1998.
Another 35 percent reported a minor impact and five percent said there was no effect.
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The situation was most desperate in Saskatchewan, where 69 percent of the businesses surveyed reported major problems last year, compared with 54 percent in both Manitoba and Alberta.
When asked what should be done to remedy the situation and put more money into farmers’ pockets, 77 percent of the businesses that responded to the survey said ending international trade subsidies should be Ottawa’s number one priority.
“While we recognize this process will take time, the federal government must continue to put pressure on other governments to create a level international playing field, one without subsidized trade,” said Robert Meijer, the federation’s agri-business policy analyst.
Other options
The next most frequently mentioned solution was reducing federal fuel taxes (mentioned by 52 percent), followed by increasing initial payments (48 percent), reducing sales taxes on farm inputs (46 percent) and improving safety net programs (43 percent).
Meijer said the survey makes it clear that the cumulative effect of rising input costs and taxes have “crippled” prairie agri-business.
Only 12 percent said ad hoc payments such as the Agricultural Income Disaster Assistance program would help solve their income problem.
Eighty-six percent of the respondents said federal agricultural programs provided no help at all in 1994, while 82 percent said the same about provincial programs.
The CFIB survey was sent to 2,300 independently owned and operated agri-businesses across the Prairies, with 431 returned, for a response rate of 18 percent.
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool president Leroy Larsen said the results of the CFIB survey emphasize the need to find long-term solutions to the farm income crisis.
“It is clear from this survey and many other reports that everyone involved in Canada’s agricultural sector is suffering from problems over which they have little control,” he said in a press release.
He repeated the pool’s call for governments to provide short-term relief by freezing cost-recovery programs that raise farmers’ costs and to reduce the tax burden on farmers and small business operators.
