Federal agriculture minister Chuck Strahl’s recent promise to provinces that he will work on transforming rather than scrapping the unpopular CAIS program has produced a backlash among some members of the Conservative rural caucus who campaigned on the promise to kill the program.
During the winter election campaign, a commitment to scuttle the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program was popular in many rural ridings. Last week, some MPs were warning that their farmers do not want to see any backtracking.
“Oh, do the guys in my area dislike it,” said Saskatoon area MP Brad Trost in an interview. “I’m standing behind what I campaigned on and what the prime minister promised in the election.”
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James Bezan, from Manitoba’s Selkirk-Interlake riding, said the message from his farmers is equally clear: “Scrap it. This program is not working and we made a promise to get rid of it.”
Even the Saskatchewan MP favoured by the government to be the new chair of the House of Commons agriculture committee said farmers in his west-central part of the province are in no mood for tinkering.
“My farmers are saying there is not enough there to salvage or improve,” said Battlefords-Lloydminster MP Gerry Ritz.
He insisted Strahl was not backtracking but simply indicating the CAIS program should be improved until something better is ready.
“That’s what we campaigned on and it’s not that we’ve dropped the ball on that promise,” he said. “It’s just going to take time.”
Meanwhile, as Strahl meets Parliament for the first time as ag minister this week, he is weighed down by pressure from all sides for decisive action on spring farm aid and program
improvement.
On April 5, he faced his first question period as minister in the aftermath of a Parliament Hill rally that drew thousands of farmers demanding help. Many planned to be in the public galleries of the Commons that day peering down at his performance.
Rallies were being planned in several provincial capitals as well, including Regina and Winnipeg.
The same day, speaker Peter Milliken was expected to deal with an opposition request for an emergency debate on agriculture.
“I would like to see the debate this week because this is the key crisis the country is facing at the moment,” said Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter, who requested the debate April 3.
And all the while, Conservative backbench MPs who represent most of rural Ontario and the Prairies will be watching Strahl’s performance.
Last week, representatives of the Conservative rural caucus met with Strahl and prime minister Stephen Harper to plead for a signal to farmers that the government understands their crisis and will respond.
“We had a very good meeting and I know Mr. Harper understands the crisis and everything that is fiscally possible will be done,” said Regina-Qu’Appelle MP Andrew Sheer.
Others who attended the meeting said they are looking to the government’s first budget expected in late April or early May.
“We are working to get money into the hands of farmers as quickly as possible,” added Regina-area MP Dave Batters.
Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Bob Friesen, who met Strahl last week, said the minister “seems to have a very solid understanding of the situation farmers are facing.”
All eyes will be on him now to see if the government gives him the leeway to deal with it.
