A bitter partisan dispute over the Canadian Wheat Board has sabotaged an all-party agreement in the House of Commons to quickly approve legislation expanding the scope of government-guaranteed loans.
Bill C-29 would extend the scope of the Farm Improvement and Marketing Co-operatives Loans Act to make more than $1 billion in loans available to beginning farmers, family farm succession financing and agricultural co-operatives with a majority of farm members.
It was passed quickly May 11 at the second reading stage in the House of Commons with all-party support.
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MPs on the Commons’ agriculture committee agreed May 12 that the committee would quickly approve the bill May 14 and send it back to the Commons for final reading. An hour was allotted for the bill after a two-hour meeting on wheat board issues.
However, partisan tempers flared and Alberta Conservative Earl Dreeshen proposed a motion that would force the wheat board to hand over to the committee a consultant’s report the board says contains commercially sensitive information that should not be made public.
The report was in part an analysis of last year’s losses to the board’s contingency fund.
Liberal Wayne Easter objected that this was part of a Conservative “witch hunt” against the wheat board and he refused to let the motion come to a vote without what he promised to be a long debate.
The Conservatives refused to withdraw the motion.
There was a tense stalemate and the meeting ended abruptly without discussing C-29.
Almost immediately, Easter and Conservative David Anderson, parliamentary secretary for the CWB and an ardent opponent of the board’s monopoly, exchanged news releases accusing the other side of hurting farmers by stalling the farm loan bill.
Anderson said the Liberals were denying farmers needed government-guaranteed credit so they could protect the wheat board and its attempt to conceal information on losses.
“The Liberals gave their word that they support this vital legislation. Now they are turning their backs on Canadian producers to play political games.”
Easter fired back that the Conservatives allowed their partisan hatred of the wheat board to deny farmers needed loans.
He implied that the bill was not just delayed but killed.
“The Conservatives’ partisan attack on the CWB has cost them to lose Bill C-29,” he said.
“Parliament is supposed to function on the basis of co-operation. This government has ensured that that important relationship has been damaged and in the process is hurting Canadian farmers and their families.”
MPs will attempt to get the bill before committee when it resumes hearings May 26.
The legislation allows eligible farmers and co-operatives to borrow from financial institutions with government backing and a fixed interest rate.
For the first time, beginning farmers would be able to borrow up to 90 percent of the purchase price to a maximum of $500,000 for property and $350,000 for other purposes.
Family farm transfers between generations would be eligible for financing under the program.
As well, co-operatives with non-farmer investors would be eligible for loans, as long as farmers make up a majority of members.
