SASKATOON – Marion Kelly left an election forum on agricultural issues unconvinced by any of the three candidates.
The greenhouse operator and Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan representative from Unity said she hadn’t yet made up her mind about which party would best represent her.
She doesn’t hold a party membership and she said there wasn’t a single issue that would guarantee her vote.
“I’m going to look at the whole package from all the parties and go from there,” she said.
“I don’t decide until the last minute.”
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However, Kelly said she was disappointed that agriculture minister Mark Wartman chose to highlight his and the government’s activities over the past term rather than focus on the six areas APAS has identified as agricultural policy issues for this election: crop insurance; education property tax; fuel tax removal; environment; federal inspection procedures and carbon credit trading.
She said the other two speakers, Saskatchewan Party agriculture critic Bob Bjornerud and Kindersley Liberal candidate Erhard Poggemiller, offered the views she was expecting to hear.
She particularly liked Poggemiller’s comment that local people should control schools and hospitals.
APAS president Glenn Blakley said his group organized the forum in Saskatoon Oct. 23 to allow farmers input in the campaign.
“I’d have preferred to see a little more emphasis on a couple of the questions,” he told reporters afterward, singling out APAS’s desire for a whole farm insurance program that would better stabilize the industry.
He said stability is the key issue for farmers.
Wartman has said that research shows premiums for a program like that would cost too much, but Blakley said farmers could and would pay for a program that responds quickly to all the risks they face, is easily understood and is bankable.
“Affordability is more tied to the effectiveness of the program,” Blakley said.
During his presentation, Bjornerud outlined the differences between crop insurance coverage in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
For 80 percent coverage on spring wheat, Manitoba farmers get about $20 per acre more coverage and pay just more than half the premium. For canola, the difference in premium is smaller but the coverage in Manitoba is about $75 more per acre.
“I believe because we’ve gutted crop insurance to the point that we’re at right now we’re leaving federal dollars on the table,” Bjornerud said of the cost-shared program.
Poggemiller also said the program must be enhanced but the costs involved would have to be considered.
The candidates had different opinions about funding a hog slaughter facility to replace the former Maple Leaf plant in Saskatoon.
Poggemiller said the Liberals support value-added development and would support a slaughter plant.
“Whether or not there would be a huge government commitment in dollars to such a thing I’m not sure,” he said.
Bjornerud said a Saskatchewan Party government would not invest public money in a slaughter plant.
“We think there’s a lot of private investment out there that would come to Saskatchewan if the government changes,” he said.
“Hopefully, some of those investment dollars we could convince to go into something like a hog slaughter plant.”
Wartman said an NDP government would help if the proponents of a plant had markets in place.
“If we can see those markets coming through, we’ll be ready to start building,” he said.
The forum format allowed each speaker 30 minutes to address the crowd of about 50 people. That was followed by written questions submitted by the audience.
Another forum planned for Oct. 23 at the University of Saskatchewan was cancelled. The Regina branch of the Saskatchewan Institute of Agrologists is planning a political forum on agriculture Nov. 1 at Regina’s Queensbury Centre.
