The prospect of an early federal election has ended the Canadian Wheat Board’s plan to conduct an all-day lobbying blitz on Parliament Hill Nov. 28.
The board was planning to meet with dozens of MPs and key decision makers in the federal bureaucracy to talk about how world trade talks would affect it.
But with the possibility that the Liberal government will be defeated, perhaps on that very day, the board has put its plans on hold, said spokesperson Deanna Allen.
“That’s on the back burner,” she said. “We’re definitely not doing it before the end of the year.”
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
Allen emphasized that the lobbying blitz is being postponed, not cancelled.
“If we have the opportunity and an appropriate window, I do think it’s extremely necessary we do this in advance of any sort of ambitious ministerial meeting (of WTO),” she said.
The World Trade Organization has scheduled such a meeting for Dec. 13-18 in Hong Kong. It had been anticipated the meeting could see major decisions made on agricultural trade issues, although those expectations have been dampened in recent weeks.
Allen said the lobbying effort is necessary to impress on Canadian government decision makers the negative impact on farmers if new trade rules severely weaken the board while European and American subsidies remain largely untouched.
“They’ve got to know how farmers feel about this and a lot of farmers are looking to us to fill that advocacy role,” she said.
Meanwhile, the board’s decision to hire Ottawa public affairs firm Global Public Affairs to help with its WTO lobbying efforts triggered criticism from a familiar source.
Conservative MP David Anderson, one of the agency’s most vocal and persistent critics, criticized the board’s plans for a lobby day and accused the agency of spending farmers’ money to “ingratiate itself” with the Liberal government.
In a News release
news, he described Global Public Affairs as being “chock full of former employees from the prime minister’s office and various Liberal ministerial offices.”
Randy Pettipas, president of Global Public Affairs, rejected Anderson’s characterization of the company as a Liberal firm.
“I don’t think that’s a fair statement at all,” he said, adding that any firm like his doing business in Ottawa is bound to have employees with connections to former governments.
While there are former bureaucrats who worked under the Liberals on the payroll, he said, there are also employees with ties to other political parties and some with no political background.
In his news release, Anderson said it’s wrong for the wheat board to “throw money at prominent Liberals” at the same time as farmers are facing the lowest grain prices in years.
But Allen made no apologies for the lobbying
effort.
“I agree grain prices are low and it’s a tough go for farmers,” she said. “If we didn’t have to spend that money, that would be great.”
She said grain farmers have a lot at stake in the WTO talks and a lot of decision makers are not well informed on the issues, on both the government and opposition sides of the House of Commons.
