Senate Conservatives spent an entire question period last week ganging up on government senate leader Bernard Boudreau, demanding that prime minister Jean ChrŽtien take an interest in the prairie farm crisis.
They noted that in the United States, president Bill Clinton has led a call for more government aid to farmers.
“Why does the prime minister not treat this as a national crisis?” asked Saskatchewan Conservative Raynell Andreychuk.
“Why does he not step up to the plate and tell Canadians what he plans to do for Saskatchewan farmers?”
Read Also
Ag in Motion speaker highlights need for biosecurity on cattle operations
Ag in Motion highlights need for biosecurity on cattle farms. Government of Saskatchewan provides checklist on what you can do to make your cattle operation more biosecure.
Boudreau insisted that ChrŽtien and the government recognize the crisis, but he criticized Saskatche-wan for refusing to commit more money.
“In my view, you cannot say that the provincial government has played their full role in this assistance,” said the Nova Scotia Liberal and cabinet member.
“The federal government has not withdrawn, even though the provincial governments have failed to step up.”
That was too much for renegade Saskatchewan Liberal senator Herb Sparrow, who has often criticized his government’s response to the farm income issue. He said aid money is not flowing and farmers are two months away from “total disaster” and yet Liberals belittle the problem.
“Mr. Minister, you are trying to defend the indefensible,” he told Bou-dreau, to Tory cheers.
“The understanding is just not there.”
He also urged ChrŽtien to become personally involved.
Boudreau said he would pass the message on, but also told Sparrow he could deliver it himself in Liberal caucus. “He can do it with much greater knowledge and emotion than I can.”
Conservative senate leader John Lynch-Staunton saw politics in the debate and then injected some of his own. He argued that the Conservatives were much more generous while in office.
“There was a time when the much-maligned Grant Devine, former premier of Saskatchewan, called the much-maligned Brian Mulroney, former prime minister of Canada, and said ‘we have a crisis here in Sask-atchewan,’ ” Lynch-Staunton said.
“Before you knew it, the money flowed where it had to go to help the farmers face the crises they were in at that time.”
He wondered why the same sequence was not happening this time.
“I am starting to think that the reason is simple – they all voted for the Reform party and the fact that they voted Reform must mean they do not believe in subsidies.”
He said ChrŽtien has decided there are no prairie rural votes for the Liberals so they will concentrate grants and benefits in urban areas where Liberals still have some support.
Winnipeg Conservative Mira Spivak complained that the government appeared to be treating the prairie farm crisis as business as usual.
“I appreciate the fact that the challenge we face in the farming communities in Manitoba and Saskat-chewan cannot be considered business as usual,” said Boudreau.
He also conceded the programs “are not working as they should.”
But he insisted a major part of the problem is that Saskatchewan is not co-operating in a new program that could be made better.
