QUEBEC CITY – It was a controversial proposal on how to increase funding for the farm lobby.
In a research paper presented to the annual Agricultural Institute of Canada meeting Nov. 7, consultant and former Quebec farm lobbyist Hugh Maynard suggested farmers should commit a small portion of their gross revenue to fund their representative organizations.
He noted that union members, doctors, lawyers and engineers often pay one to three percent of gross income in dues.
“If Canadian farmers gave over just one percent of gross sales towards their organizational representation and advocacy (maybe some research funding as well), they would have over $500 million at their disposal,” Maynard wrote in a proposal he conceded would be unpopular with farmers.
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“By comparison, the national organization for Canadian farmers, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, has to cover all the bases on just over $1 million annually and some provincial farm organizations barely have any budget at all.”
Ontario Federation of Agriculture president and CFA board member Ron Bonnett was in the audience when Maynard made his pitch.
“It might seem strange to have a farm leader criticize a proposal to better fund the organization but this is just unrealistic,” he said. “Farmers already face a number of levies and checkoffs for research, marketing and promotion. I don’t think there is the cash in the farm economy for another one. That number certainly seems excessive.”
Maynard’s reference to the CFA’s million-dollar budget also captured just a portion of the money farmers spend for advocacy.
The actual figure would be in the tens of millions of dollars when it includes the budgets of the supply management agencies, provincial CFA affiliates (Quebec’s provincial farm lobby alone has a budget of more than $10 million) and other national or provincial lobby groups such the Canadian Canola Council, Grain Growers of Canada and the National Farmers Union.
