OTTAWA – The on-again, off-again travel plans of the Commons and Senate agriculture committees studying the future of the industry are off.
Tense negotiations between Reform and Liberal MPs could not resolve the differences. A proposal to begin traveling in late January has been shelved, at least until after Parliament resumes Feb. 6.
“I don’t think Reform wants us to go out and meet farmers in the West,” said Liberal committee co-chair MP Bob Speller. “I think they want to be the main contacts in their ridings, with their own twist on events. I think they have played politics here.”
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Reform house leader Elwin Hermanson said the problem was the Liberal way of consulting.
Reform wanted a series of focus groups, public meetings flowing from issues raised in those focus groups and limited travel. Liberals, he said, had more extensive and less focussed plans that included hearing from “the same farm leaders we always hear from.”
In the end, the collapse centred on a Reform demand that a proposed Jan. 22-28 trip be switched to March so Reform MPs could go to a caucus meeting in Vancouver.
Speller said he would not change the travel date and suspected Reform didn’t really want to travel. Reform said they did and they suspected the Liberal government did not want the project to get off the ground.
